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DRESS-REFORM: 

A SERIES OF LECTURES DELIVERED IN BOSTON, 

ON DRESS AS IT AFFECTS THE 
HEALTH OF WOMEN. 

EDITED BY 

ABBA GOOLD WOOLSON. 

ffiHttfr Illustration*. 



<■ 




BOSTON: 

ROBERTS BROTHERS. 

1874. 






•«. ,,, 









Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by 

ABBA GOOLD WOOLSON, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 028659 



Cambridge : 
Press of John Wilson & Son. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The following Lectures were delivered in Boston 
during the spring of the present year ; and their 
purpose was to arouse women to a knowledge 
of physical laws, to show them how their dress 
defies these laws, and what different garments 
they should adopt. All, save the last, were writ- 
ten by female physicians of recognized ability 
and position ; and the testimony thus given con- 
cerning the injuries inflicted by dress was felt to 
be authoritative and convincing. ' The lectures 
excited much attention at their first presentation ; 
and, soon after, they were repeated by request in 
several adjoining cities. In compliance with the 
wishes of many hearers, and from a desire to 
extend the good work which they have already 
accomplished, they are now offered to the public 
in permanent form. 

It is believed that their force and value will 
be enhanced by a statement of the circumstances 
which led to their preparation. 

A little over *a year ago, it became the duty 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

of a committee of ladies, associated together, 
to take cognizance of the wide-spread and in- 
creasing dissatisfaction then existing in regard 
to woman's dress, to inquire into the many 
charges brought against it, and to determine 
what steps, if any, could be taken towards mak- 
ing it more healthful, artistic, and serviceable. 
With no preconceived theories to establish, these 
ladies set to work in good faith to ascertain pre- 
cisely what was wrong, how to cure it, and how 
to render these cures acceptable and widely 
known. They consulted the experienced, fair- 
minded women about them, corresponded with 
many in other cities, and made a patient study 
of the hygienic and aesthetic principles to which 
a proper dress must conform. The result of 
these inquiries was to convince them that the 
whole structure and the essential features of our 
present apparel are undeniably opposed to the 
plainest requirements of health, beauty, and con- 
venience, and that any remedies, to be thorough, 
must concern themselves not merely with the 
external costume, but with every garment worn 
beneath it. 

It seemed vital to the physical well-being of 
the whole nation that such remedies, when 
devised, should be generally and permanently 



INTRODUCTION. vn 

adopted. And yet it was also evident that any 
reform in woman's dress, which should produce 
a marked and sudden alteration in her appear- 
ance, would find favor with but a few ; and that 
these few, however heroic, must ultimately yield 
to the prejudices of the many. Thus the wisest 
efforts would result in defeat, unless due defer- 
ence were paid to the force of custom and to 
the conventional standards by which every inno- 
vation must be judged. 

It was accordingly deemed best to render the 
improvements that should be recommended, how- 
ever thorough they might be, as unnoticeable to 
ordinary observers as it was possible to make 
them, without too great a sacrifice of health, 
comfort, and beauty to the fashions of the time. 
A striking change in the appearance could only 
be produced by some sudden change in the ex- 
ternal costume ; and, tried by physiological prin- 
ciples, that appeared by no means the most 
objectionable portion of the attire. Indeed, un- 
der intelligent guidance, it would admit of such 
modifications and selections as would eliminate 
its worst features, and accommodate it to a 
wholly novel hygienic suit worn beneath it. 
And a complete revolution in the structure and 
the adjustment of the ordinary under-dress was 



vni INTRODUCTION. 

by far the most important thing to be gained. 
If that could be effected, the outward covering 
would in time take care of itself. 

This view did not imply that a radical change 
in the entire dress was not in itself desirable, 
but that, whether desirable or not, it could not 
be imposed at the present time. A new cos- 
tume, to be of lasting benefit, must appear in 
response to a general call, and to meet an en- 
lightened and permanent desire. Any endeavor 
to introduce it to-day would only invite another 
defeat, to dishearten reformers in the future. 

The wisdom of these conclusions had been 
demonstrated by experience. All previous at- 
tempts at dress-reform had been failures, be- 
cause they sought to accomplish an immediate 
result by ill-considered and inadequate means. 
It was supposed that from bad clothes to good 
was but a step, and that the only preliminaries 
necessary were to devise the best possible ap- 
parel, and to invite everybody to adopt it. The 
most noticeable of these failures was the Bloomer 
costume ; for, of all attempted revolutions in 
dress, it sought to bring about the most radical 
change in the appearance, and it came the near- 
est to effecting this end. Its originators, who 
were themselves intelligent and brave, proceeded 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

on the assumption that great numbers of women 
throughout the country were not only dissatis- 
fied with the old attire and longing for a better, 
but that they would at once adopt a better as 
soon as it should appear, however odd it might 
look, and from whatever source it should spring. 
Others were to follow their example, not from 
any deliberate and reasoning preference for the 
new over the old, but because the new should 
become the mode. When all had worn it and 
experienced its blessings, they would refuse to 
abandon it, and thus its reign would be made 
secure. 

The result proved how mistaken were these 
assumptions. It was, indeed, true that many 
had grown restless under the burdens and re- 
strictions of their dress. Of these, the more 
desperate seized the remedy offered, and defied 
consequences ; but a greater number, who cov- 
eted the ease and freedom it promised, lacked 
the courage to adopt it, and waited till it should 
establish itself in general favor. A few, regard- 
less of higher claims, were attracted by its nov- 
elty, and hastened to lead a new style. But to 
the majority of thoughtless women it remained 
an object of indifference or of ridicule. With 
evils and their remedies they had little to do. 



x INTRODUCTION. 

For them, nothing could be right which was not 
fashionable ; and nothing could be fashionable 
which had not come from Paris. They were 
strengthened in their hostility by that half of 
humanity whose favor they chiefly sought, and 
who, as they had never experienced the miseries 
of the old attire, could never appreciate the com- 
forts of the new. Men sneered at the costume 
without mercy, and branded it as hideous. As 
made and worn by many of its followers, it was 
certainly not beautiful : but had it been perfec- 
tion itself, it would have utterly perished ; for 
arrayed against it were the force of ignorance and 
of habit, and the persistent prejudices to which 
they give rise. Those who devised it had taken 
no pains to humor long-established tastes, or to 
induce a candid consideration of the advantages 
it would confer. While overrating the intelli- 
gence and courage of their followers, they had 
underrated the strength of their opponents. Be- 
fore the ridicule that assailed it, its converts 
soon disappeared. A few clung to it resolutely : 
but they learned at last that the mental discom- 
fort it brought to its singular adherents out- 
weighed the physical comfort it gave ; and they, 
too, went back, with a protest, to the old, de- 
tested garb. Thus the Bloomer costume has 



INTRODUCTION. xi 

perished, and is remembered only as a tradition. 
Certain benefits it brought ; but these are not 
what it sought to confer. A permanent reform 
of the dress of American women it has not 
effected ; and it has, unquestionably, delayed its 
advent. So signal a failure has tended to dis- 
courage all subsequent efforts in the same direc- 
tion, and has confirmed the thoughtless in their 
servile copying of foreign models. 

But, had the costume succeeded in establish- 
ing itself as our permanent and recognized dress, 
it would not have rendered further reform un- 
necessary. The improvements it made, though 
conspicuous and important, were superficial. It 
simplified the clothing, lessened its weight, and 
gave freedom to the limbs; but certain perni- 
cious features were retained. So long as the 
trunk of the body is girded in the middle by 
bands, with too little clothing above and an 
excess of it below r , so long will the greatest evil 
of our present dress remain untouched. 

Notwithstanding the lessons of the past, many 
still fancy that the object desired can be reached 
by a short and easy path. When dress-reform- 
ers seek for some wise and sure method of 
advancing their work, they meet advisers who 
say : " Fashion is the one powerful ally w T hom 



xn INTRODUCTION. 

you should strive to gain : concentrate your 
efforts upon her ; hunt her to her mysterious 
lair, — to that secret haunt beyond the seas, 
where, in busy silence, this frivolous Hecate 
brews the deadly potions she forces to our lips. 
There, convert her to your views, and the cause 
is won. Since we must all obey her behests, it 
behooves us to see that they are the behests of 
knowledge and of common sense." 

To which we reply, Fashion is too fickle to 
be a valuable coadjutor in any work. Continual 
change is necessary to her very existence ; and 
the costumes she imposes, however acceptable 
and good, can be but the whims and vagaries of 
an hour. To intrust vital principles to her is 
to write them upon the sand. Neither is she as 
despotic as she may seem. Her mandates re- 
flect the wishes of her subjects ; and, when we 
rail against her, we rail against a secondary 
cause. If she deserves opprobrium from us, it 
is because we force her to accede to our demands. 
She stoops to conquer the American market. 
At home, in Paris or Berlin, she amuses herself 
with the invention of ever-fresh absurdities of 
style ; but they are for duchesses and queens, 
whose daily lives are of little value to the world 
or to themselves, and who can afford to give their 



INTRODUCTION. xni 

time to the display of costly follies. We are a 
nation of earnest workers and of plain republi- 
cans ; yet no absurdities that she conceives for 
others are absurd enough for us. We bid her 
send to our shores only her last and wildest con- 
ceits, and to add to them an extra touch. If she 
has delicate fabrics, we wish to wear them in our 
changeable climate ; we require her to lengthen 
our trains, that we may drag them, on hurried 
errands, through unswept streets ; to load our 
skirts with ornament, that we may bind them 
about our feeble frames ; and to pinch and plait 
the slender bodices in which we do housework, 
tend shop, and lift unruly children. Fashion 
exclaims, " Mon Dieu ! what glorious creatures 
these Americans are ! They abound in money, 
and they adore my caprices. I must give them 
their hearts' desire ! " 

It is not against her power that we should 
strive, for she is more catholic in taste than her 
devotees, and more concessive to the require- 
ments of reason. She now offers us good styles 
as well as bad ; and that we adopt the bad rather 
than the good is not because of any inexorable 
necessity against which we hopelessly contend, 
but because, of our own free will, we prefer the 
tvorst that she can devise. 



xiv INTRODUCTION. 

Moreover, she controls but a small portion of 
the domain of dress. The worst evils we expe- 
rience are beyond her power to affect. It is for 
her to modify the outer costume, and to vary 
its countless details ; but with the abiding and 
essential structure of the whole attire she has 
nothing to do. And what are a few ruffles more 
or less, a fitful change in the trifles of finish and 
trimming, to the inequalities of temperature, the 
burdens and the compressions, which our dress 
in every one of its many forms must inflict ? 
They are but mint, anise, and cummin, compared 
with the weightier matters of physical laws per- 
petually broken by an established and unvarying 
style of senseless underwear, which has been 
handed down from generation to generation, and 
which we have all accepted from our mothers 
and grandmothers as the legacy of Fate, asking 
no questions as to its utility, and dreaming of 
nothing else as possible. 

What is needed, then, is not to assail Fashion, 
but to teach Hygiene, — to awaken women to 
\ a consciousness of the injuries that follow the 
wearing of their present garments, and to de- 
monstrate that it is in their power so to modify 
this tight, heavy, and complicated style of ap- 
parel as to increase the strength, ability, and 



INTRODUCTION. xv 

happiness of themselves and of their children. 
Only through a general indifference to Nature's 
laws has a steady adherence to suicidal fashions 
been possible in the past. To remove such in- 
difference should be the primal endeavor of any 
reformers who desire to lay the foundations for 
a broad and beneficent work. 

In accordance with these views, the Associa- 
tion, of which mention has been made, took 
measures, early in the present year, for the pub- 
lic delivery of a series of free lectures to women, 
concerning the structure of their dress, and the 
important natural laws with which it conflicts. 
From a belief that no views would be so intelli- 
gent, and no words so effective, as those of expe- 
rienced female physicians, a number of regularly 
educated and able members of the medical pro- 
fession were selected, and urged to speak upon 
this theme. Most of them were personally un- 
known to the members of the Association ; and 
all were chosen solely on account of their mani- 
fest fitness for the task. One has been for thirty 
years a well-known and successful practitioner, 
and during that period has had a wide acquaint- 
ance with the physical sufferings of her sex. 
Another is President of the Ladies' Physiologi- 
cal Institute, — a large and honorable society, — 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

and for a long time has taken charge of an im- 
portant dispensary at the North End. Two are 
regular professors, and one a lecturer, in the 
Medical Department of the new Boston Univer- 
sity ; and all are practising physicians of good 
repute. The invitation extended to them they 
accepted without hope of recompense, and sim- 
ply from a benevolent desire to stay the tide of 
misery and weakness which they are daily called 
upon to observe. 

The lectures were not intended to be a con- 
nected course, but a series, where all should be 
kindred in scope, and each one complete in itself. 
There was, therefore, no assignment of any spe- 
cial topic to any special lecturer ; nor did the 
lecturers hold any consultation beforehand, either 
together or with the Association, as to what 
should be said. The general theme assigned 
was " Dress, as it affects the Health of Women ; " 
and the physicians were left to advance what- 
ever assertions and opinions might seem to them 
good. Those for whom they spoke had no hob- 
bies to present, no theories to uphold : their 
purpose was simply to obtain such a public pres- 
entation of facts concerning the dress of women 
as should command attention and induce reform. 
Thus the papers, when read, were as fresh to 
them as to any of the audience. 



INTRODUCTION. xvn 

The entire freedom of expression which this 
plan secured might have been supposed to result 
in a wide dissimilarity of views. But, as if with 
intentional concurrence, these several physicians, 
of different experience, education, and schools, 
agreed, not only in general statements, but in 
the specification of the minutest details ; and 
these statements were also in perfect unison 
with the conclusions to which the Association 
had previously been led. 

The plan upon which the series had been 
given, and the uniformity of belief which it 
developed, implied, of course, some repetitions ; 
but these were to be welcomed as evidences of 
the truth of what was said. It had not been the 
aim of the speakers to propound startling facts 
or singular opinions, but, without technical terms 
or learned speculation, to bear such plain, direct 
testimony to a few vital truths as should carry 
conviction to the minds of their hearers. Judg- 
ing by the crowded and eager audiences that 
assembled to hear them, and the inquiries and 
endeavors subsequently put forth in the cause of 
reform, these efforts to benefit others met with 
a cordial and earnest response. 

The claims of the physiologist were of such 
surpassing importance, that only one lecture in 



xviii INTRODUCTION. 

the series was devoted to the need of reform 
from an aesthetic point of view. In the closing 
paper, considerations of beauty, economy, and 
fitness received some recognition. 

For women who are already convinced of the 
evils of their present dress, and who desire to 
provide for themselves a better, an Appendix 
has been prepared, in which will be found some 
explicit and practical suggestions in regard to 
the radical improvements that are capable of 
ready adoption to-day. It offers no regulation- 
suit for all to accept, irrespective of peculiar 
needs and preferences ; but, by defining clearly 
the principles upon which a proper dress should 
be constructed, and by presenting a variety of 
forms in which such principles may be embodied, 
it seeks to avoid those unnecessary limitations 
upon individual freedom which would be unwise 
if they were not futile. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Lecture y Page 

I. By Mary J. Safford-Blake, M.D. . . i 

II. By Caroline E. Hastings, M.D. . . . 42 

III. By Mercy B. Jackson, M.D ■ 63 

IV. By Arvilla B. Haynes, M.D 98 

V. By Abba Goold Woolson ....... 124 

Appendix 183 

Index of Topics 255 



DRESS-REFORM. 



LECTURE I. 
BY MARY J. SAFFORD-BLAKE, M.D. 

That there is a growing discontent among 
women in regard to the clothes they wear, 
none can dispute, save those who having ears 
hear not. Whence arises this unrest, that, like 
a great billow, has broken over the land ? Its 
origin can be distinctly traced to pur growth : 
we have become women, and we desire to put 
away childish things. 

When laws made by our forefathers are out- 
grown, when they are found to clog the wheels 
of progress, they are modified or rescinded, or 
they stand as dead letters upon the statutes. 
If, with enlarged spheres of action, the styles 
of dress imposed upon us by the demi-monde 
fashion-mongers of Paris, prove wholly insub- 



2 DRESS-REFORM. 

servient to our needs, why accept them ? Old- 
time superstitions are crumbling from under us 
in all directions. We begin to rejoice in the 
privilege, slowly accorded us, of thinking for 
ourselves, and of living true to our highest ideal 
of right. Possessed of ripened judgments and 
of justly matured opinions, we shall never be 
content so long as we are ruled in any direction 
by a merciless dictator. We have long since 
ceased to pay willing homage to this foreign 
despot, Fashion ; and now, strengthened by the 
will and voice of many, the protest against her 
decrees has become so potent that we begin to 
rejoice in the hope of soon being able to consult 
our own individual tastes, needs, and conven- 
iences in dress, as in other matters that pertain 
to our every-day life, without being a target for 
ridicule or for scorn. 

Wherever the Gospel of Dress-Reform has 
been preached it has found waiting disciples. 
Encouraged to believe that the time had come 
for union of effort in this direction, an associa- 
tion of ladies was formed in Boston and in New 



DRESS-REFORM. 3 

York a year since, which has been doing a good 
work in ferreting out the Protean forms of evil 
connected with dress, and in suggesting reme- 
dies for the same. 

The association has not aimed at any radical 
changes in the externals of dress, save such as 
pertain to greater simplicity, to a convenient 
length of skirts, to less trimming, ■ and hence to 
less weight. Much has been done to call atten- 
tion to the modelling of undergarments, as well 
as to the material of which they are made. Sev- 
eral practical inventions for the suspension of 
clothing from the shoulders, for the lessening of 
the number of garments worn, and at the same 
time for the insuring of greater warmth, are the 
outgrowth of recent investigations. In order to 
have positive hygienic evidence brought to bear 
upon the ills entailed by improper dress, the 
association has arranged to have a series of 
lectures delivered in our city by women physi- 
cians, and it is the first of these which I have 
the honor of delivering to you this afternoon. 

The subject has been canvassed from so many 



4 DRESS-REFORM. 

points of view, that it would seem a hopeless 
task to add to it one thought more of interest, 
did we not realize that in this busy work-day 
world of ours, where each is hurried by the 
duties assigned him, it often occurs that the 
vital interests pertaining to self are overlooked. 
The man who lives within easy access of Niagara 
may never visit that phenomenon of nature ; the 
grandest works of art are often little known by 
those born and bred near them, and so it may be 
in our familiar relation with self. We are prone 
to await a convenient season in which to ac- 
quaint ourselves with the laws of our being ; and 
it not unfrequently happens that the fleshy tab- 
ernacle crumbles, totters, and falls before the 
mind has fully recognized the necessity of a har- 
monious relationship between soul and body. 

One of the great blessings that the nineteenth 
century confers is that of associated effort. In 
the solving of social and scientific problems, we 
move in battalions ; and when a victory is won, 
be it in Sitka or in Africa, the electric wire 
flashes an instantaneous announcement of it to 



DRESS-REFORM. 5 

the whole world. The boiling of Mother Watt's 
tea-pot, and the observation of it by her son 
James, enable us to-day to ride upon old ocean 
with the speed we do, and to bring within com- 
fortable access our- most distant shores. How- 
ever insignificant the beginnings of effort seem, 
our vision is too limited to see in the dim vista 
of the future the final results. 

In presenting to you some thoughts upon the 
subject of dress, than which I trust to convince 
you few are more vital, I do not desire you to 
accept my ipse dixit of right or of wrong ; but I 
hope you will probe the facts presented, and, if 
they appeal to your common-sense and reason as 
truths, that you will heed them, not alone for 
your own good, but that your influence may go 
forth as a help and guide to others. 

Converts to truth are variously affected : the 
scales fall from the eyes of one, and he says in 
his heart that which he sees is true ; but he lisps 
his convictions to no one. Another preaches 
the glad tidings that, whereas he was blind, now 
he sees ; but he acts as before. A third stands 



6 DRESS-REFORM. 

out like a bas-relief upon the flat surface of 
society, and lives the truth his soul has received. 
How stagnant would have become the streams 
of progress, if each believer had consulted his 
own individual comfort and ease ! Boston might 
rock her cradle of Liberty to-day, and sing lulla- 
bies to her progeny of Freedom, with millions of 
fettered slaves in the land ; but the conviction of 
wrong stamped itself upon the soul of a few, 
and they proclaimed it without thought of self- 
interest or of hindrance. There was principle 
to be maintained, and they moved on beneath 
its guidance till the bondmen were free. 

Can my lady of leisure, who sits in her boudoir 
to-day with no imperative call to face the blind- 
ing snow or pelting rain, who can spend her 
mornings in dishabille, who can command car- 
riage and horses to carry her dress-appendages, — 
can she look out from her damask-hung windows 
upon the hurried throng of business women, 
going early to the duties of the day, and return- 
ing late to their homes, and say there is no need 
of dress-reform ? 



DRESS-REFORM. 7 

If two women were to ascend Mount Washing- 
ton, the one in a porte-a-chaise carried by four 
men, and the other on foot, would the former be 
justified in condemning the latter because she 
complained of the weariness and hindrance that 
the false burdens of fashion entail upon her ? 

In America there seems to be a general 
rage for a showy exterior, regardless of fitness 
of time, place, or circumstance. There are few 
lines of dress demarcation here to distinguish 
mistress from maid ; and while the one enjoys 
a large share of favor, based, it may be, wholly 
upon externals, is it any wonder that the other 
apes her, even though it prove a hard-earned 
folly ? 

When I recently asked a young woman, who 
earns eight dollars per week, and pays seven 
dollars for her board and washing, what she 
thought would be the most effective way to help 
working girls into more practical, healthful, and 
economical modes of dress, her reply was, "In- 
duce women of wealth and of position to adopt 
in their changes of style only those things that 



8 DRESS-REFORM. 

are comfortable and sensible, and we shall follow- 
as they lead." It may be said that this is as 
absurd as if we should declare that because the 
poor cannot dwell in fine houses the rich shall 
not have them. I do not consider the two cases 
parallel. No doubt much of the extravagant 
luxury of modern palaces might well be dis- 
pensed with : but in matters of dress it is health 
and morals that we wish to elevate ; and no one 
has a right, measured by the highest law, to lead 
others astray, even by example. Offences must 
needs come, but woe unto him through whom 
they come ! None can deny the moral side of 
this momentous question. If health and help 
ever reach us, it must come from above down- 
wards. Women in high places, those upon 
whom are laid the weighty responsibilities of 
position, of wealth, and of influence, need but the 
strength of resolve and the force of action to 
stay this tide of extravagance and this perilously 
increasing physical degeneracy that over-dress is 
largely responsible for. 

We scarcely fail in our daily peregrinations to 



DRESS-REFORM. 9 

note the deference paid to fine clothes. The 
plainly dressed, hard-working woman enters a 
horse-car, laden perhaps with bundles, and she 
is left to stand ; while the woman whose gar- 
ments are modelled after the latest fashion-plate, 
whose jewels are adjusted to show themselves 
off to the most glaring advantage, is very sure 
to arouse the latent gallantry in some male 
heart, and this secures her a ready seat. He 
may find that good clothes and good breeding 
are not counterparts, for his courtesy may not 
receive the simple acknowledgment of "Thank 
you, sir." 

Men are excellent theorizers upon the absurdi- 
ties of dress ; but when a practical application of 
their theories is made by their wives, daughters, 
or sisters, few are found brave enough to stand 
by and encourage these ladies to wear only 
such garments as are conducive to health and 
comfort. 

Who that listened last winter to the painful 
cough of a celebrated prima donna upon the 
operatic stage could have failed to condemn the 



10 DRESS-REFORM. 

unjust demands of custom, which compelled that 
artist to trail behind her, as a graceful append- 
age, yards of soiled satin, thus rendering every 
movement that should have been one of free- 
dom and of grace most painfully labored and 
affected? While her uncovered body was ex- 
posed to the prurient eyes of the world, at the 
risk of health and life, her stalwart male sup- 
porter, whose arm would have given a greater 
girth than her pinched waist, was dressed in 
thick velvet garments, and over these was 
thrown a loose, warm cloak. The next day the 
papers announced that the prima donna would 
be unable to appear owing to illness. Had she 
died, what pathetic sentiments would have been 
penned upon the physical frailty of woman ! 

That uniformity of temperature is desirable, 
is readily apparent from the fact that when any 
portion of the body becomes unduly heated for 
a prolonged period of time, congestion of the 
part is liable to follow ; and when, on the other 
hand, a part is exposed to cold, the capillaries 
become contracted, the blood is thrown within, 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 1 

and any organ is liable to become engorged. 
The one which is weakened for any cause suffers 
most quickly and severely ; and, unless an equi- 
librium of circulation is soon restored, inflamma- 
tion follows. The myriad-mouthed pores of the 
skin, two thousand of which are found to occupy 
a square inch of surface, become closed, the 
tubuli leading from them become clogged, the 
carbonic acid the pores exhaled is retained, the 
oxygen they drank up is withheld, and the aera- 
tion of the blood then becomes wholly the work 
of the lungs. The frequently congested state of 
these organs during a cold is the result. 

In woman's dress, from six to ten thicknesses 
are found, as a rule and not as an exception, 
to encase the thoracic region, while the lower 
extremities are covered, more frequently than 
otherwise, with but one thickness, and that of 
cotton. Under such circumstances, an effort to 
obtain proper warmth is usually made by adding 
an extra supply of skirts, although these gar- 
ments contribute much more to pressure about 
the waist, weight upon the hips, and undue heat 



12 DRESS-REFORM, 

in the kidneys and abdominal organs, than to 
warmth in the lower extremities. But it is in 
these lower parts of the body that heat is most 
needed, because there the circulation of the 
blood is less active, and an under-current of 
air around them is apt to produce chills. 

Let a woman step from a temperature of, per- 
haps, seventy degrees within doors, to zero with- 
out, and stand on the street corner five minutes 
for a car, while the breeze inflates her flowing 
skirts till they become converted into a balloon : 
the air whizzes through them and beneath 
them, and a wave of cold envelops the entire 
lower portion of the body. Then let her ride 
for an hour in a horse-car, with ankles wet from 
drabbled skirts, and exposed to a continual draft 
of air : of course her whole system is chilled 
through ; and it cannot be otherwise than that a 
severe cold will follow as the penalty for such 
exposure. 

A woman accompanied by her husband came 
to consult me on one of the dreariest days of last 
winter. Her teeth chattered with the cold ; and 



DRESS-REFORM. 13 

you will not wonder at it, any more than I did, 
when I tell you that she had on cloth gaiter- 
boots, thin stockings, loose, light cotton drawers, 
two short skirts of flannel, a long one of water- 
proof, another of white cotton, an alpaca dress- 
skirt and an over-skirt, This made seven thick- 
nesses, multiplied by plaits and folds, about the 
abdomen. Each of these skirts was attached 
to a double band ; and thus the torrid zone of 
the waist was encircled by fourteen layers. All 
this weight and pressure rested upon the hips 
and abdomen ; and the results were — what they 
must be, if this pressure has been long con- 
tinued — a displacement of all the internal or- 
gans ; for you cannot displace one, without in 
some way interfering with another. Here was 
this woman, w T ith nerves as sensitive as an aspen- 
leaf to external influences, clad so that every 
breath of cold chilled her to the marrow, the 
neck and shoulders protected by furs, the hands 
and arms pinioned in a muff, the head weighted 
down by layers of false hair, and the legs almost 
bare ; while her husband, the personification of all 



14 DRESS-REFORM. 

that was vigorous in health, was enveloped, as he 
told me, from head to foot in flannel. His every 
garment was so adjusted that it not only added 
to the heat generated by the body, but helped to 
retain it. I question whether that hale, hearty 
man would not have suffered twinges of neural- 
gia or of rheumatism, had he been exposed, as 
his wife was, to the severity of our atmospheric 
changes. Even in summer these changes are 
sudden and severe ; and then men are usually 
clothed in woollen garments, only a trifle thinner 
and lighter than those worn in winter ; while 
women are often decked in nothing but muslin, 
and are chilled by every sudden nor'-easter. 

The soldiers of Austria were accustomed to 
retain their pantaloons about the hips by means 
of a leathern strap. Disease of the kidneys 
increased so alarmingly among them that es- 
pecial attention was drawn to the subject; and 
it was decided that the closely buckled band 
about the loins was the cause of the evil. A 
decree then went forth making the adoption of 
suspenders imperative. It would have been 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 5 

wise if that imperial investigation had extended 
to the garments worn by women, and had led to 
a prohibition of the many bands and heavy 
weights that encircle and drag them down. The 
physical degeneracy of the mothers will leave 
its impress upon sons, as well as upon daughters ; 
and in the end the national strength languishes 
under the weaknesses of inheritance. 

The vigor of manhood in Austria is squan- 
dered in military service, and this throws much 
manual labor upon women. In Vienna, you will 
see in the early morning a rank and file of two 
hundred men and women awaiting the roll-call 
that shall apportion to each his or her labor for 
the day. Side by side with the men, women lay 
railroad iron, dig sewers, and carry up over steep 
ladders, on their heads or shoulders, brick and 
mortar for the laying of walls. Their dress, in 
length at least, is well adapted to the work as- 
signed them : it reaches but little below the knee, 
and is there usually met by long boots. You see 
at a glance that the broad peasant waist has never 
been crowded into corsets, and you rejoice in the 



1 6 DRESS-REFORM. 

belief that it is free from the inward distortions 
that bone and steel are known to produce. But 
a fearful accident occurred in Vienna, while I was 
in the hospitals: a brick block of houses fell, 
killing and mangling several women who were 
employed in building them. " Now," I thought, 
as I entered the pathological room where a post- 
mortem examination was to be held upon them, 
" I shall once, at least, have an opportunity of 
seeing the internal organs of women normally 
adjusted." To my utter astonishment, it was 
quite the reverse. In one case, the liver had 
been completely cut in two, and was only held 
together by a calloused bit of tissue. Some ribs 
overlapped each other ; one had been found to 
pierce the liver, and almost without exception 
that organ was displaced below the ribs, instead 
of being on a line with them. The spleen, in 
some cases, was much enlarged ; in others, it was 
atrophied, and adherent to the peritoneal cover- 
ing. The womb, of all internal organs the most 
easily displaced, owing to its floating position in 
the pelvis, and to the fact that it lies at the base, 






DRESS-REFORM. 1 7 

and is pressed upon by all above it, was in every 
instance more or less removed from a normal 
position. 

I acknowledge that these peasant women 
were overburdened by hard labor ; but many 
of the abnormal conditions I saw were depend- 
ent simply upon this fact, — that heavily quilted 
or home-spun skirts had been worn from child- 
hood ; and that these had always rested upon 
the hips, with each band snugly drawn about 
the waist and tied by strings. 

It has been said that the injury caused by 
bands about the waist is obviated by wearing 
corsets beneath them. You need but a moment's 
reflection to see that this cannot be so. The 
pressure of the bands helps to adjust the steels 
and bones more closely to the yielding portions 
of the body. As no support is given to the 
corsets at the shoulders, and the skirts are not 
attached to them, they can furnish no relief 
whatever to the weight of garments resting upon 
the hips, and they add greatly to the unremitting 
downward pressure upon the abdominal organs. 



1 8 DRESS-REFORM. 

Although these women did much hard work 
with nature so violated, still it stands to reason 
that they could not have had the same amount 
of strength and endurance that a normally organ- 
ized body would have given them. It is always 
observed how much earlier they grow old than 
the men of their own rank ; and this waste of 
force, this friction upon self, with the various 
added burdens they bear, is no doubt the cause. 

Again, a terrible epidemic raged in the lying- 
in wards of Vienna, while I resided in the hos- 
pital of that city. In one week thirty women 
were consigned to their last resting-place. Here, 
also, I sought to make earnest research into 
the true relation to each other of the internal 
organs ; and when I saw the condition of the 
majority of these poor women after death, I re- 
alized, as I could never have done without such 
opportunities, how danger and suffering increase, 
both for mother and child, in proportion as the 
former compresses and depresses her own body, 
and the embryo life it shields. 

In my own country, the cases I have examined 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 9 

after death have been limited in number, but 
nearly every one seen has revealed the same sad 
history. Chiefly through the courtesy of other 
physicians, I have had the opportunity to be 
present at the autopsy of several unmarried 
women. They were of the class not compelled 
to labor unduly, so that most of the abnormal 
conditions of the generative organs could be 
rationally accounted for only by improper dress. 
Whenever it was possible, I inquired into the 
habits of life and the modes of dress of the sub- 
ject. In one girl, aged twenty-two, whose waist 
after death was so slender that you might almost 
have spanned it with united fingers, there was 
an atrophied state of all the glandular organs. 
It seemed to me possible, and even probable, 
that this condition had its origin largely in a 
continuous pressure upon that life-endowing 
nervous centre, the solar plexus, and upon the 
central glandular organs. 

Recent experiments by a well-known physi- 
cian of New York show conclusively that con- 
tinual pressure brought to bear upon the stomach 






20 DRESS-REFORM. 

of animals causes their death more quickly than 
when applied to any other organ. The death of 
women occurring under the influence of anaes- 
thetics has in many instances been traced to im- 
peded circulation resulting from tight clothes. 

However loosely corsets are worn, the steels 
and bones in them must adjust themselves to 
the various curves and depressions of the body, 
and must be felt, else the sure death that women 
so often declare would follow their abandonment 
would not be anticipated. As soon as the mus- 
cles give warning, by their weakness, that they 
are no longer adequate to the support of the 
body, it is high time they were given every 
chance to recuperate. Instead of this, we con- 
tinue to hold them in immovable bondage. If 
the walls of a building were weak, we should 
expect only temporary aid from props ; but we 
should seek diligently for the cause of the weak- 
ness, and then turn all our efforts to remedy it. 
So it should be with our own muscular walls. 

It does not require the foresight of a seer to 
diagnose a chronic case of tight lacing and of 



DRESS-REFORM, 21 

heavy skirts. You know in the main what the 
results must be : you know that when the ab- 
dominal muscular walls become inert, almost 
wasted, one of the important daily functions of 
the body is rarely, if ever, normally carried on. 
We might enumerate the ill results that fol- 
low ; but these are only links in the long chain 
of disorders that have won the disgraceful appel- 
lation of women's diseases, when they should be 
termed women's follies. There has been no 
blunder in the formation of women : there would 
be harmony of action in each organ, and in the 
function assigned it, if Nature were not defrauded 
of her rights from the cradle to the grave. 

The authorities whose opinions we most re- 
spect, because they are founded upon observation 
and research, and not upon blind prejudice, 
assure us that girls come out from the trying 
ordeal of coeducation unscathed. In mental 
calibre they are universally recognized as the 
peers of boys, now that they are beginning to 
have equal advantages with them for mental 
culture. Is it not, then, high time for the dawn 



22 DRESS-REFORM. 

of their physical development ? But the only 
pleasurable and invigorating out-of-door exercise 
that girls have ever had has fallen into disfavor, 
because their dress was improper, and colds were 
contracted. Skating for girls seems doomed to 
be classed among the lost arts. I do not think 
that this one healthful exercise should be de- 
nied them, until it is tried under proper con- 
ditions. 

A startling fact nearly precludes all gymnastic 
exercises in our schools : it is, that girls in their 
ordinary attire are so hampered in every liga- 
ment, joint, and muscle, that, in order to have 
perfect use and command of themselves for the 
brief space of an hour, this straight jacket, 
their clothes, in which they are encased sixteen 
hours of the day, must be wholly laid aside 
for looser and lighter raiment. If young ladies 
ride on horseback for exercise, as is done in 
some of our female colleges, what does it avail 
them, pinched and burdened as they are by their 
dress ? If they row, it is under like conditions ; 
and the results are the same. What if our 



DRESS-REFORM. 2$ 

young men found it necessary to make an entire 
change in their apparel before they could drill, 
play base-ball, coast, or row ? They would soon 
find it exceedingly irksome, and would seek, as 
girls have, their level of muscular inactivity. 

With the cessation of school-life ends, for 
young women, the one hour per day of the 
chest-inflating, arm-extending, back-bending ex- 
ercise that has been occasionally allowed them. 
If the dear graduate is so circumstanced that 
she must fall a victim to the epidemic rage of 
fashion, she will soon be called upon to struggle 
for days and weeks to keep her head above the 
Elizabethan ruff that threatens to swallow her 
up. But worse tortures than this await her. 
The thumb-screws of the inquisition might have 
been more painful to bear, but they certainly 
produced less harm than do the unyielding steels 
of her corsets, and the firm plates of metal 
attached as clasps to her belt, between which 
she is now cruelly pressed, and often so snugly 
that an impression of her fetters is indented 
into the flesh. 



24 DRESS-REFORM. 

And what of her hair? Why, the poor girl 
has but just begun to recognize her own shadow 
on the side-walk, since the last sudden decree of 
fashion, when Simon says, "Thumbs up," and 
forthwith the rats, the mice, the luxuriant braids 
of hair and of jute rush to the top of her head, 
as if a pocket battery had been trifling with each. 
This new arrangement causes no little suffering. 
There is a great deal of pressure and heat on the 
top of the brain, and a physician is consulted. 
Mamma tells ^Esculapius that once when her 
child was very young she played out in the sun, 
without her hat ; that a sunstroke, or something 
like it, occurred ; and that this affection is, very 
probably, the result of that exposure. " Most 
likely," responds ^Esculapius ; and he gives quiet- 
ing powders. The scalp adapts itself, like all 
else in nature, to circumstances ; but then a new 
fashion-plate arrives, and as with one fell swoop, 
at the command of " Thumbs down," the whole 
accumulation of braids, puffs, and curls drops 
from its lofty heights, and hangs suspended at 
the base of the brain. 






DRESS-REFORM. 25 

Now the distress of the darling daughter has 
changed base : spinal meningitis is feared, and 
medical aid is speedily secured. Mamma ,can 
assign no cause for this new phase of suffering, 
unless it be that, some years before, her daugh- 
ter fell on the ice. This time the pain proves 
so stubborn and severe that the Doctor is forced 
to suggest that the poor sufferer lay aside some 
of the superfluous weight of hair that has evi- 
dently caused more than a mere surface irri- 
tation. Vesicants would have been trifling to 
endure, compared with the mortification of being 
shorn, for the brief space of a few days, of those 
uncleanly false braids. 

The causes of all our physical weakness are 
more assiduously sought for through a genera- 
tion of grandfathers, than in false hair, kilt 
plaits, flounces, bustles, and corsets. But this 
pressure and weight of the daily dress would 
account for much of the physical prostration 
and enfeeblement of the women of our time. 
Many invalids, who are unable to lift a broom, 
habitually carry weights upon their heads and 



26 DRESS-REFORM. 

backs that the Humane Society would think 
cruel, if laid upon animals. 

It is one of the sad reflections in connec- 
tion with the absurdities and injuries of dress, 
that children are so early made to suffer by 
them. The weight and pressure of wide sashes, 
long, full bows, and over-skirts, are as heating 
and wearying, laid upon little backs, as are the 
various excrescences with which adult spines are 
freighted. The old saw, that " beauty unadorned 
is adorned the most," is never more aptly applied 
than to childhood. All that tends to rob this 
early age of its naturalness and simplicity de- 
prives it of its greatest charm. It may be an 
old-fashioned whim, but it seems to me that the 
unsullied, unrumpled, high-necked apron, and the 
plain ungarnished calico of former days, made 
children more attractive than they can ever be 
when transformed, as they now are, by dictates 
of the latest fashion-plate, into miniature men 
and women. 

And when the world is so full of good things 
to be done, which find no one to do them, may 



DRESS-REFORM. 2J 

we not help to open the way by which the hew- 
ers of wood and drawers of water can aspire to 
higher conditions of labor? We say that our 
sewing keeps poor women employed ; but is 
there no better way in which to exercise philan- 
thropy than by dwarfing our souls and weaken- 
ing our bodies that we may keep sempstresses 
at work ? Very likely they could earn a much 
more healthful and quite as remunerative a live- 
lihood by tilling the soil, or by entering into 
trades and professions. Is the American mil- 
lionnaire, or the European princess, a model of 
Christian benevolence, when by her extravagant 
purchases she helps to keep thousands of pallid, 
half-starved girls bent over their lace-frames 
in the damp cellars of Belgium ? Would it 
not be better to strive to render those women 
less miserable and dependent, by opening up 
to them more varied and healthful avenues of 
employment ? 

Time and money considered, nothing is more 
important in dress than the material of which 
it is made. A substantial, plain, elegant fabric 



28 DRESS-REFORM. 

carries on the face of it its own recommendation. 
Like a well-bred person, it is always present- 
able in any place and upon any occasion ; while 
the flimsy stuff, however much ornamented, 
like a merely superficial character, shows its 
worthless origin ; and the more you attempt to 
cover over its defects by gaudy externals, the 
more apparent they become. 

And how much more economical and sensible 
is it to have one comfortable suit of clothes, 
adapted, in color, cut, and warmth, to our needs, 
than to possess a variety of garments, none 
worn enough to justify us in abandoning them, 
but all left on our hands when the season ends ! 
The remodelling of such attire, which thus 
becomes a part of the next year's labor, really 
consumes more time, and gives more annoyance, 
than the making of wholly new garments. 

I retain as a delightful memory an evening 
spent at the house of a German Professor in 
Berlin. There were rare minds gathered to- 
gether from many lands, men and women whom 
one had known and prized from afar. The 






DRESS-REFORM. 29 

charming manner in which the Frau Profes- 
sorin welcomed her guests left nothing to be 
desired. I do not know that any other than my 
American eyes took note, even, of her dress ; 
certainly no one seemed to scrutinize it. But 
she was arrayed in a pearl-colored silk, which, 
as I afterward learned, had been her wedding 
gown, made fourteen years before. It had a 
long bodice, with small plaits at the waist and 
broad ones upon the shoulders ; an open front, 
with lace under-kerchief ; mutton-leg sleeves, 
closed at the wrist, with a frill of lace about 
them ; and the skirt was short and full, and gath- 
ered upon the waist. Her hair, all her own, was 
gathered into a meagre knot behind. 

I could but make an estimate then of the 
probable time she had saved from those fourteen 
years by wearing her gown as it was first made. 
I felt sure, taking into consideration the match- 
ing of material, the selection of trimmings, the 
confabs with dressmakers, that would have been 
necessary to keep the dress modernized in ac- 
cordance with the changing demands of the 



30 DRESS-REFORM. 

mode, that months of precious time had thus 
been spared to the wearer, and peace of mind 
beyond computation. Who could tell but that 
those days, weeks, and possibly months, were 
what gave her the time, in part, to learn to con- 
verse fluently with her guests, as she did, in as 
many different languages as they represented ? 

In our great republican hive, the working- 
women — by which term I mean every woman 
with a decided employment, be it mental or man- 
ual (and, as civilization advances, there will be few 
others) — must, sooner or later, have the same 
privileges as regards dress accorded to them in 
our social circles that are granted now to men. 
If a woman is closely occupied during the day, 
it may be quite impossible, or at least very in- 
convenient, for her to lay aside her usual garb 
for the adornments of the evening. Her com- 
panion in work gives hair and coat a brush, sees 
to it that his linen is immaculate, and takes no 
further thought for the occasion, to which he is 
also invited. 

And, little by little, people begin to expect con- 






DRESS-REFORM. 3 1 

sistency and fitness in the dress of women occu- 
pied in earnest work. An invalid said to me not 
long since : " For years, upon my couch, I have 
traced the footsteps of those who have taken a 
front rank in the march for freedom and truth. 
This winter, for the first time, I was enabled to 
listen to the voices of those whose sayings had 
become household words to me ; and imagine my 
surprise to see Mrs. Blank's grand features set in 
a high ruff, with ear-rings in her ears, false braids 
towering upon her head, and her dress sweeping 
the platform ! Why, to have seen William Lloyd 
Garrison in a Louis Quinze powdered wig, knee- 
buckles, and embroidered coat-tails, would not 
have surprised me more." Lucretia Mott would 
cease to be the treasured picture we carry in 
memory, were she divested of her simple, un- 
changing Quaker garb. Florence Nightingale 
would become common clay, instead of the 
angel of the hospital, were she to be represented 
to us in the ridiculous disfigurements of pannier, 
chignon, and leathern girdle with its string of 
dangling trinkets. 



32 DRESS-REFORM. 

Let a high and holy purpose take possession 
of the soul, and the body becomes its willing 
subordinate. The world, so often blinded to its 
best interests, at last learns to recognize the 
worth of the aim, the value of the mind. Exter- 
nals in time are lost sight of ; and the individual 
is sought after for what she is and does, and not 
for the value of her diamonds, the rarity of her 
lace, and the quality of her velvet. 

When medals and titles had been conferred 
by the majority of European nations upon Pro- 
fessor Opholzer of Vienna, the Emperor, Fran- 
cis Joseph, remembering that a prophet was not 
without honor save in his own country, informed 
the revered professor that a medal awaited his 
acceptance. A few days after, the old professor 
came to his clinic in the early morning as usual, 
followed by a swarm of disciples. When he had 
finished his wearisome hours of instruction at 
the bed-side of the sick, he drove to the Imperial 
Palace. Conceive of the horror of the finely 
dressed usher, when he beheld the professor 
come in his work-day suit to enter into the au- 



DRESS-REFORM. 33 

gust presence of his sovereign. No, that could 
never be. A dress-suit, white neck-tie, and 
white gloves were indispensable to the receiv- 
ing of a medal. The professor replied that the 
duties of his profession precluded such cere- 
mony; that, if His Majesty desired it, he would 
send his good clothes to him, but that he had no 
time to wear them. He drove away, and never 
returned to receive the honor that his dress-suit 
might have won for him. 

So long as women are subordinate to the 
clothes they wear, so long will social intercourse 
be the prattling, superficial thing it everywhere is, 
and so long will parties and receptions literally 
mean nothing but exhibitions of wearing apparel. 
Communion, Easter, and Baptismal costumes ! 
Alas for the example of the meek and lowly 
Master ! 

We must have something of the stability in 
our styles of dress that characterize the clothes 
of men. It seems to me that fifteen minutes in 
the spring, and fifteen in the fall, must suffice 
for a man to provide himself with all the clothes 



34 DRESS-REFORM. 

he needs for comfort and for adornment. He is 
allowed to smile at the devices of his tailor, and 
to hold to old fashions till they are threadbare ; 
but let a woman be five years behind the style, 
and where in society is there a niche for her 
to fill? 

At every National, State, and County Exposi- 
tion we ought to have a dress department, where 
the best materials will be shown, and where 
styles will be discussed from a hygienic, aes- 
thetic, and economic point of view. Then we 
shall begin to have doctors of dress ; and there 
will be specialists in the profession, those who 
will recommend to us colors and textures, 
those who will see to it that we are so well 
dressed that no one can tell what we wear, and 
so comfortably attired that self and clothes 
blend into an harmonious whole. Then there 
will be no meteoric flashes of style, only a slight 
modification in the cut and fit, when, in the 
course of human events, a change of garments 
becomes a necessity. 

In that good time coming, the aurora of 



DRESS-REFORM. 35 

which it is hoped is now seen above the horizon, 
nothing will astonish and grieve us more than 
to reflect upon the life and energy we here 
squandered in clinging to that worst form of 
barbarism in our dress, the trailing skirts. 
Shorn of them, we are told, we should be bereft 
of our grace, our loveliness, our womanliness , 
It would seem as if any one, however blinded by 
the customs of his time, might see the absurdity 
of a nation of intelligent women allowing them- 
selves, under protest, to be converted into city, 
town, and country scavengers, without thanks or 
the recompense of admiration from those whose 
approval is most to be desired. For women who 
go thus hampered, there can never be one step 
free from filth and annoyance of some kind, un- 
less the skirts are clutched and held up by main 
force. Even at summer resorts, by the sea-side 
and in mountain places, where people flee from 
all that is wearisome to the spirit and to the 
flesh, even here only an occasional woman is 
found brave enough to remove this objectionable 
feature of her dress, and to let the poor, over- 



36 DRESS-REFORM. 

burdened body become really free. When she 
does follow the dictates of her own conscience, 
her friends often feel it incumbent upon them to 
reward her good sense by saying, - 4 She always 
was peculiar." The young miss who may tower, 
perhaps, head and shoulders above her seniors, 
does not shock the hyper-sensitive world by the 
shortness of her gown, and the exposure of her 
feet and ankles. But let her grow in years, 
though not in stature, and she becomes a 
monster in the eyes of the public, if she insists 
upon retaining the freedom of movement that 
her short dress formerly insured. 

There really seems no prescribed limit to the 
height to which skirts may be lifted in walking, 
if only the wearer is hung round about with 
clogging folds from which she can never free 
her hands without paying the penalty of wet 
and mud-bedraggled hems. Holding on to her 
draperies as if for dear life, she may raise them 
to the knees, and her style of clothing is tole- 
rated with complacency. But let it be known 
and seen that the dress is hung so as never to 



DRESS-REFORM. 37 

come below the tops of the boots, and that the 
limbs are properly and decently covered with 
leggins which fit closely, or with Turkish trou- 
sers fastening at the ankle, and what fears are 
harbored for the appearance and the morals of 
women ! Instead of such attire being ugly, it 
can be made most tasteful and becoming. All 
travellers, I think, express only admiration for 
the short costumes universally worn by the peas- 
antry of Europe. There, some individuality in 
taste is exercised, and the result is a pleasing 
picturesqueness in the dress of the people. With 
us, at present, the requirements of beauty are 
wholly disregarded by the adoption of styles un- 
suited in every way to their wearers. 

There seems a dread suspicion in the minds of 
some that women have no other aim in their 
desire for dress-reform than that of adopting 
the hideous style of clothes worn by men. I see 
little besides the durability of the material and 
the lightness and warmth of their clothing which 
is worthy to be adopted by us. 

I cannot believe that the earnest, thinking 



38 DRESS-REFORM. 

women of America will ever cease to demand it 
as a right and a privilege to dress so that they 
can meet unfettered the duties that they assume 
or that are thrust upon them. Now, health, 
strength, and energy are exhausted in the fric- 
tion that results from carrying superfluous bur- 
dens, — burdens which have been handed down 
to them from an age when women were passive 
instead of active members of society. The trail- 
ing and decollete dress of the salon is historically 
one of the relics of the period of lust, when 
women were shut out of the kingdom of thought, 
and were linked with men only in bonds of sen- 
suality. When men have higher estimates of 
women, and women more self-respect, their love- 
liness will not be determined by bare arms and 
shoulders, and by trailing silks, any more than 
the manliness of man is now by the broadcloth 
he displays. 

Before closing, let us briefly recapitulate feat- 
ures that ought to be introduced into any ra- 
tional dress-reform. The under-garments should 
suffice, in the quantity and quality of their mate- 



DRESS-REFORM. 39 

rial, to give suitable warmth to the entire body ; 
and the distribution of this warmth should be 
as equable as possible. To facilitate speed in 
dressing, and to obviate the necessity for the 
many bands now worn about the waist, unite in 
one suit vest or waist and the lower garment. 
Let no weight whatever rest upon the hips ; and if 
the shoulders rebel against their burdens, lighten 
the weights they bear. Let the stockings be 
suspended, by means of an elastic band depend- 
ing from the vest or from the union garment, 
if you would find no marks of impeded circula- 
tion upon the limbs. Let the stockings in 
winter be woollen, if you find them comfortable ; 
but if not, then let them be fleece-lined, — the 
heavier, the better. Leggins are never to be 
dispensed with in this climate during the winter 
season. Be sure to have the soles of your shoes 
broader than your feet, and the heels low and 
broad, if you would walk with ease, and avoid 
corns and bunions. To insure warm feet in 
winter, and not overheated ones in summer, 
wear heavy soles the year round. The higher 



40 DRESS-REFORM. 

the tops of the boots, the warmer the ankle, 
provided they are so loose that the circulation is 
free. If your work permits it, have the material 
of which your dress is made firm and enduring. 
If occupied in housework, washable material is 
desirable, not necessarily calico, so thin and cold 
for winter, but some serviceable woollen stuff. 
If a constant attendant upon the sick, there 
must be no rustle to your garments, and they 
must be frequently changed and washed. If 
you would not carry contagion from the sick 
room, do not wear false hair ; for it may become 
impregnated with disease germs. If you would 
avoid many nervous affections, neuralgia, and 
sick headache, if you would keep the scalp 
clean and free from disease, then do away with 
that mass of dead material, false hair. It calls 
to itself floating impurities, and gives only heat, 
weight, and weariness to the head ; while it de- 
stroys the beautiful outline of the head, and all 
symmetry of proportion between its size and that 
of the body. If you would retain a fair skin, and 
have the face free from pustules, let the blood 
flow unimpeded to every part. Keep the skin 



DRESS-REFORM. 4 1 

active by the use of pure water, and avoid the 
" Balm of a Thousand Flowers/' and all cosmetics, 
under whatever alluring names presented. If 
you cover your face with veils, you may save your 
pallid complexion, but you will injure your sight. 
I have the best authority that the world has ever 
known for saying this. Dr. Von Grafe, the 
lamented oculist of Berlin, whose memory is 
revered in every land, told me he believed one 
of the prolific causes of amaurosis, — that disease 
in which specks float before the eyes, — among 
women, was the wearing of spotted lace veils ; 
and of near-sightedness among children, the 
wearing of any veils. So, as you prize the 
precious gift of sight, avoid the things that may 
weaken it, or deprive you of it altogether. 

Finally, if women would live true to the 
highest ideal for which they were created, and 
would measure their lives by noble deeds, let 
them make for the soul imperishable garments, 
and give only such thought to the clothing of 
the perishable body as will suffice to render it 
strong and efficient for carrying out the soul's 
behests. 



42 DRESS-REFORM. 



LECTURE II. 
BY CAROLINE E." HASTINGS, M.D. 

Ladies, — I come before you this afternoon to 
speak upon the subject of dress-reform. It is a 
subject which is engaging the attention of many 
at the present time ; and its agitators, feeling 
encouraged with here and there a convert, have 
conceived the idea of presenting it before dif- 
ferent audiences, hoping to rouse the common- 
sense of women to come to the rescue, and to 
aid them in overthrowing the tyranny of the 
despotic and ever-changing goddess, Fashion. 

To me the service which this ruler demands 
of her subjects is simply appalling ; and nothing, 
I think, could make me more miserable, mentally 
or physically, than to be obliged to adopt the cos- 
tume of a fashionably dressed woman. On the 
other hand, I suppose nothing would make one 
of Fashion's devotees more miserable mentally 



DRESS-REFORM. 43 

— mind, I do not say physically, in this case — 
than to be obliged to dress as simply as do some 
of the dress-reformers. 

I shall endeavor to demonstrate to the eye 
that the present style of woman's dress does 
interfere with her best health ; and I hope the 
reasons for my statements will seem to you so 
conclusive that some, at least, may be won from 
the error of their ways. To this end, I ask 
your attention to certain facts concerning the 
construction of the human body. And, be- 
fore going any farther, let me say that there 
are probably, in this audience, many who have 
attended excellent lectures upon that and 
kindred subjects, and who are therefore well 
acquainted with both anatomy and hygiene. To 
such, a great deal of what I shall say will be 
as familiar as household words. But is not this 
true of any reform ? Who can reveal any thing 
new upon the subject of Temperance ? And yet 
the discussion on that theme holds the attention 
of the public mind, however often it may be 
repeated. We have but one story to tell ; and 



44 DRESS-REFORM. 

what we mean to do is to tell this story over 
and over, till women shall listen and heed the 
warning. 

In a printed report of the lecture given last 
Wednesday, it was stated that " the treatment of 
the subject thus far had been more an elab- 
oration of the injurious effects of the present 
styles of dress than of what dress-reform should 
be." I do not understand the object of these 
lectures to be to propose a certain style of attire 
to be adopted as a uniform ; but rather to arouse 
the minds of women to the fact that the present 
styles of dress are injurious, and to tell them 
wherein and how these styles act injuriously, 
leaving each woman to adopt for herself any 
external costume or style that she may prefer. 

We only insist that the attire shall be so con- 
structed as to hang from the shoulders ; that it 
shall be of sufficient waist-measure to allow a 
continual full expansion of the chest, and of a 
length that shall prevent the dress from doing 
the work of the scavenger. I say we aim first 
to convince women that there is need of a reform 



DRESS-REFORM, 45 

in dress : and we believe that, when they are 
once thoroughly convinced of this, they will 
bring about a style suited to the wants and the 
comfort of the body, — perhaps by carrying out 
an idea suggested in the first lecture of this 
course, viz., that " at every National, State, and 
County Exposition, we ought to have a dress 
department, where the best material may be 
shown, and where styles, from a hygienic, aes- 
thetic, and economic point of view, may be dis- 
cussed." The demand itself will furnish the 
means, and show us the way. Our duty is to 
create the demand. 

First, then, we will consider the bony frame- 
work of the body ; and I am fortunate in being 
able to show you a specimen this afternoon. 
Some of the bones enclose cavities, — as, for 
instance, the ribs, which enclose the thoracic 
cavity ; and again the hip-bones, as they are 
familiarly called, which, with the lower part of 
the spine, form a cavity known as the pelvic 
cavity. Between these two cavities lies another, 
which has no bony walls, only walls of flesh. 



46 DRESS-REFORM. 

The thoracic cavity, as I have said, is formed 
by the ribs, twenty-four in number, twelve on 
each side, with the breast-bone in front, and the 
spinal column behind. To the spine the ribs 
are joined by strong ligaments ; but they are 
finished out and attached to the breast-bone 
by means of cartilage, with the exception of the 
two lower, which are attached only to the spine. 
As these are not attached to the breast-bone, 
they are called floating ribs. The cartilaginous 
attachments permit the cavity thus enclosed to 
be expanded to a great extent, provided their 
elasticity is not interfered with by some contriv- 
ance supposed to be an improvement upon the 
original plan. When these cartilages become os- 
sified, as they sometimes do, from disease or old 
age, the ribs are fixed in position, and the chest 
can no longer dilate. This is not considered 
an advantage, but a misfortune. The same 
result, if it follows the wearing of a garment, 
occasions no concern ; but I can see little differ- 
ence between the two evils. I believe that any 
lady, young or old, must experience serious 



DRESS-REFORM. 



47 




Bony Framework of the Body. 



48 DRESS-REFORM. 

injury when she interferes with one of Nature's 
wise designs by compressing these twenty-four 
ribs to such an extent that the cartilages in 
which they terminate cannot act. What differ- 
ence does it make whether these ribs expand or 
not, you may ask. The difference between ease 
and disease. The form of the ribs is more 
readily changed than that of any other bones of 
the body ; for their situation is such that the 
constant pressure of the clothing above them 
day after day needs to be but slight to bend 
them downwards and inwards. Well, you say, 
what if they are bent downward and inward ? 
what harm is done ? It is an old saying that 
Nature abhors a vacuum. There is no unoccu- 
pied space in the body ; and to render any part 
of it smaller than Nature designed is to cause 
the organs occupying that part to diminish in 
size, or to crowd together one upon another. In 
either case, Nature's processes are sadly inter- 
rupted. It does not require any great pressure 
to lessen the capacity of the thoracic cavity, 
provided the process be begun in early life. 



DRESS-REFORM. 49 

Snugly fitting dresses worn from childhood till 
the age of eighteen or twenty will accomplish 
the result ; but, as if to make assurance doubly 
sure, the mother buys a compress, which she 
clasps around the body of her little girl while 
yet the bones are in their most yielding state. 
And no wonder the girl of sixteen or eighteen 
thinks she cannot live without her corsets. The 
muscles, never having been allowed to do the 
work of supporting the spinal column and ab- 
dominal organs, refuse to come up to the full 
measure required of them at a moment's notice, 
and, as a natural consequence, the young lady 
feels all she expresses when she says, " It seems 
as though I should drop to pieces without my 
corsets." 

Within this thoracic cavity of which I have 
been speaking are contained the vital organs, — 
viz., the lungs and heart, — called vital because 
an entire suspension of their functions for a few 
minutes will result in death. 

The lungs, which are the essential organs of 
respiration, are composed of tubes, blood-vessels, 

3 D 



50 DRESS-REFORM. 

and air-cells ; and these are held together by a 
thin connective tissue. The tubes are branches 
of the trachea or wind-pipe. These branches 
divide again and again, as a tree divides into 
branches and twigs, till they become too minute 
to be seen with the naked eye. At the utmost 
extremity of each of these twigs may be seen 
little bladders or air-cells, which receive the air 
as it comes through the tubes. It is estimated 
that there are 600,000,000 of these air-cells in 
one pair of lungs. The blood-vessels coming 
from the heart divide and subdivide, and finally 
form a network around each one of the air-cells. 
All the blood in the body passes through the 
lungs once in five minutes, to be oxygenized. 
The oxygen is taken with every breath into these 
air-cells, and is given off to the blood through 
the membranes of the air-cells and the blood- 
vessels. The blood in turn gives up its carbon, 
and that which upon entering the lungs was 
a purplish hue becomes a bright cherry color. 
Thus vitalized, it is returned to the left side of 
the heart, to be sent out all over the body, carry- 



DRESS-REFORM. 5 l 

ing life and health to every part. Situated be- 
tween the lungs is that hollow muscular organ, 
the heart; and below them is the liver, the 
greater part of which lies upon the right side, 
and extends downward, in its normal position, to 
about the lower border of the tenth rib. The 
diaphragm is the internal breathing muscle ; and 
it acts a very important part in the process of 
respiration. It is attached in front to the lower 
portion of the breast-bone ; on either side, to 
the inner surfaces of the cartilages and bony por- 
tions of six or seven lower ribs ; and behind, to 
that part of the spinal column ki^own as the 
lumbar region. 

Now as to the action of the diaphragm. It 
modifies to a great extent the size of the chest 
above it, and the position of the thoracic and 
abdominal viscera below. During inspiration, 
the cavity of the chest enlarges in a vertical 
direction nearly two inches, and the greater part 
of this increase is due to the descent of the dia- 
phragm. I have been thus minute in this de- 
scription for a reason that will appear later. 



5 2 DRESS-REFORM. 

Let us compress the chest by putting a band- 
age around the ribs : draw it tight, and what is 
the effect ? You can hardly find breath to say, 
" Oh ! I cannot breathe ; " you grow red in the 
face ; the head seems ready to burst. What is 
the trouble ? Why, you have so compressed the 
lungs that the air cannot pass into the air-cells, 
and you are in a state of asphyxia, and this 
means a suspension of the respiratory process. 

Let us look for a moment at the result of such 
a suspension when it becomes entire. You will 
remember about the network of blood-vessels 
surrounding the air-cells. A complete suspen- 
sion of respiration causes a retardation or stop- 
page of the circulation through this network. 
Now the blood, arrested in the lungs, ceases to 
reach the heart in sufficient quantities to support 
the action of that organ, and the phenomena of 
life are suspended. In order that the blood may 
pass through the pulmonary veins into the left 
heart, it must be changed from venous to arterial 
blood ; that is, the blood which is charged with 
carbonic acid upon arriving at the lungs must 






DRESS-REFORM. 53 

give off this poison, and at the same instant re- 
ceive the oxygen, which has been brought into 
the air-cells in the air we have inhaled. But the 
pressure we have applied has prevented this 
change from venous" to arterial blood, by cutting 
off the supply of oxygen ; the blood cannot re- 
turn to the left side of the heart, and the lungs 
cannot receive any more from the right side of 
the heart ; neither can the right heart receive 
any further supply from the veins which usually 
empty their contents into it ; and consequently 
we have a state of congestion all over the system. 
If this pressure should be kept up from two to 
five minutes, death would be the result. 

The chest of a pugilist was so much com- 
pressed by an attempt to take a plaster cast of his 
body in one piece that all action of the muscles 
of respiration was prevented. As he was unable 
to speak, the danger of death became imminent ; 
but his situation was discovered in time, and his 
life saved. 

I have been describing the consequence of 
a complete suspension of respiration, which is 



54 



DRESS-REFORM. 



death in from two to five minutes. Has it oc- 
curred to you that there is one article of wo- 
man's dress so constructed that, when clasped 
around the waist, it applies this pressure, — not 
to the extent of instant death indeed, but yet to 
such an extent that those who wear it live at 




a dying rate ? The corset is the name of this in- 
strument of human torture. So far as I am able 
to learn, no one takes to corsets naturally, and it 
is only after hours of suffering that one becomes 
able to endure them without pain, — I mean, of 
course, if by good fortune one has lived to the 



DRESS-REFORM. 55 

age of thirteen or fifteen without them. But 
now-a-days children's corsets are for sale, and 
almost as soon as the little girl is able to walk 
these are put upon her.* Too young to enter 

* A few days ago, I stepped into a large corset manufac- 
tory that is carried on by a woman. I told her I was interested 
to know what women and children wear in this line, and asked 
to see her wares from the least unto the greatest. She began 
by showing me the tiniest article I ever saw in the shape of 
a corset, saying that was for babies. Then she brought for- 
ward another grade, and still another, and so on, till I think 
she must have shown me fifteen or twenty different-sized cor- 
set moulds, in which she runs the female forms that get into 
her hands. She informed me that all the genteel waists I 
should meet on the fashionable streets of the city she made ; 
that the mothers brought their daughters in infancy to her, 
and that she passed them through the whole course of moulds 
till they were ready for the real French corset, when she con- 
sidered them finished and perfect. 

Yesterday I visited the first class in one of our city girls' 
grammar schools, consisting of forty-two pupils. I had five 
questions on a slip of paper, that I asked permission of the 
teacher to put to the girls : — 

First. — " How many of you wear corsets ? " 

Answer. — " Twenty-one." I asked them to stretch their 
arms as high as they could over their heads. In every in- 
stance it was hard work, and in most cases impossible, to get 
them above a right angle at the shoulders. 

Second question. — " How many of you wear your skirts 
resting entirely upon your hips, with no shoulder-straps or 
waists to support them ? " 

Answer. — "Thirty." 

Third question. — " How many wear false hair ? " 

Answer. — " Four." 



56 DRESS-REFORM. 

a protest, and too young to be heeded if she 
should, she grows up accustomed to the press- 
ure, and scarcely realizes the change from 
children's to ladies' corsets. 

Just here, perhaps, you are recalling the po- 
sition of the lungs, and saying that corsets do 
not encroach upon the region occupied by those 
organs, and therefore cannot compress them, and 
that all my charges fall to the ground. Not so 
fast, my dear girl ! Please to recall the dia- 
phragm, and its attachments to the lower part of 
the breast-bone and to the inner surfaces of five 
or six lower ribs, and then tell me if the press- 
ure applied by corsets does not fall directly over 
this region. 

Fourth question. — " How many wear tight boots ? " 

Answer. — " None " (which I doubted). 

Fifth question. — " How many do not wear flannels ? " 

Answer. — " Eighteen." 

I went across the hall to a boys' class, corresponding in 
grade, consisting of forty-four pupils. I asked for the num- 
ber of boys without flannels, and found only six. 

Of course one hundred per cent were without corsets, or 
weight upon hips, or tight boots, or false hair. Every boy 
could raise his arms in a straight line with his body, as far as 
he could reach, with perfect ease. — From a published Paper 
entitled Corsets vs. Brains •, by Louise S. Hotchkiss. 






DRESS-REFORM. 57 

For a complete filling of the air-cells, the 
cavity of the chest must be enlarged, in order 
to accommodate an increased expansion of the 
lungs ; and I have shown you that this increase 
in the size of the cavity is due, in a great meas- 
ure, to the depression of the diaphragm. Now, 
if you have compressed the ribs and cartilages 
so much that they cannot act, the diaphragm 
remains nearly or quite motionless, the cavity is 
smaller than is requisite for a complete filling of 
all the air-cells, a part of the blood is not oxy- 
genized, and the system suffers just in propor- 
tion to the amount of carbonic acid retained in 
the blood. 

a But I do not wear my corsets too tight," 
every lady is ready to answer. I never yet have 
been able to find a woman who did, if we accept 
her own statement ; and yet physicians are con- 
stantly called upon to treat diseases which are 
aggravated, if not caused, by wearing corsets. 
Nature is long suffering, and for a time yields 
her rights so quietly that we do not realize how 
we are imposing upon her. But a day of reckon- 
3* 



58 DRESS-REFORM. 

ing will surely come, perhaps too late. You do 
not wear your corsets too tight, you say. Tell 
me, then, why they unclasp with a snap, and 
why you involuntarily take a long, deep breath 
when you unclasp them. 

If you will allow me, I will explain why you 
take that long, deep breath. All day the blood 
has been seeking to enter the blood-vessels of 
the lungs in a greater quantity than they were 
able to receive on account of the pressure upon 
them. Now the pressure is off ; and the blood, 
no longer obstructed, rushes into the network 
of blood-vessels surrounding the air-cells, and 
instantly there is a call for oxygen to take the 
place of the carbonic acid contained in it. In- 
voluntarily we answer this call with a deep 
breath, and a complete filling of the air-cells. 
In a moment equilibrium is restored .; the blood 
flows into the lungs more steadily, and an easy 
respiration is then sufficient to supply the de- 
mand for oxygen. 

But I have hinted at diseases produced and 
aggravated by this continued pressure. For 



DRESS-REFORM. 59 

instance, the obstruction of pulmonary circula- 
tion may and does cause enlargement of the left 
ventricle of the heart, as well as congestion of 
brain, liver, and kidneys. 

Nearly a year ago a young lady complained 
to me that she was troubled with palpitation of 
the heart, at times quite seriously so. A glance 
was sufficient to show me that she wore corsets, 
,and that they were drawn to the last fraction of 
an inch. I told her she was injuring herself; 
and, that I might prove it, induced her to let me 
measure the corsets as she was wearing them. 
I found they measured just twenty-two inches. 
I then put the tape-measure around her waist, 
and, holding it loosely between thumb and finger, 
asked her to fill her lungs. She did so, and the 
measure drew out to twenty-six inches. So you 
can readily see that she was sacrificing health 
to a fancied style of beauty. I am sorry to say 
that she would not change her habit, and I have 
since known this same young lady to get another 
to hook her corsets for her, because they were 
so small that she could not possibly bring them 
together. 



60 DRESS-REFORM. 

I am very glad to be able to give you an 
instance which proves, on the other hand, that 
there is still some sense left among women. A 
young lady came to me quite out of health, 
and with symptoms of weakness of the lungs. 
Among other remedies I prescribed the leaving 
off of corsets, which advice she was willing to 
receive and adopt. She became very much 
better ; and I believe a greater part of the 
improvement was due to the giving up of cor- 
sets, aided by a few weeks in the country, where 
the lungs were at liberty to take in God's sweet 
air without hindrance. About six months after, 
she wished to attend a wedding reception, and 
thought she would put on the corsets, just for 
the evening. To use her own words, she was 
in agony till she could get home and take them 
off, thus proving what I have before stated, that 
women do not take to corsets naturally. 

I think I have given you good reasons why 
you should not wear corsets ; and now let me 
suggest in their place a waist cut to fit the form, 
a basque waist, with a strong band stitched upon 



DRESS-REFORM. 6 1 

the skirt or lower part. Upon this band sew 
five or six buttons, and in the bands of all the 
skirts work button-holes to correspond. You 
will then have all your clothes suspended from 
the shoulders without straps or tapes, which I 
have always found inconvenient from the fact 
that they will slip off from the shoulders. Hav- 
ing thus suspended your skirts to a loose, well- 
fitted waist, you not only allow plenty of room 
for the expansion of lungs, but you avoid any 
stricture about that part of the body situated 
between the thoracic and pelvic cavities, and 
which has only muscular walls. The stricture 
caused by bands about the waist when they are 
worn without corsets has been an argument in 
favor of the latter article of dress ; but -the style 
of waist proposed will remedy this evil, while it 
accommodates itself to the needs of chest and 
lungs. 

But why, if we leave the lungs free to act well 
their part, need we remove the weight of cloth- 
ing from the hips ? This brings us to consider 
the pelvic cavity and its contents. This cavity 



62 DRESS-REFORM. 

is formed by the union of the two bones called 
in familiar language hip-bones with each other 
in front, and with the lower part of the spinal 
column behind. In the lower part of this cavity- 
are situated the bladder and the uterus or womb. 
Above these organs are twenty-five feet of in- 
testines lying loosely in the abdominal cavity, 
with no great amount of support from above. 
These lower organs are joined together by the 
folding over and around of the membrane called 
peritoneum, so that whatever displaces one will 
affect the others to a certain extent. There are 
some ligaments which hold them in position, but 
they will yield if too great or too long-continued 
pressure be exerted from above downwards. In 
this way some of the diseases peculiar to woman 
are brought about. 

When the weight of clothing is supported 
only by the hips, it has a tendency to press 
down the intestines, and their weight must 
then fall upon the organs below. These, in 
their turn, are forced to yield. One of the 
rules for treatment of diseases of this nature 



) 



DRESS-REFORM. 63 

laid down in the books is, " Remove all weight 
from the hips." 

Well, having fastened your skirts in this way, 
make them as light as possible for the sake of 
the shoulders, lest you may overburden them. 
To this end, make the skirts as free from heavy 
trimmings as possible, and cut off the extra length 
that requires a facing of wiggin or leather to 
keep it tolerably clean. Do this with your walk- 
ing dresses, at least ; and then, having a broad, 
low heel upon your boot, a half day's shopping, 
or even a whole day's, may be accomplished with 
ease and comfort. 

If you have cut off the train, you will be able 
to dispense with that other superfluity, the pan- 
nier, — I believe that is the name of the excres- 
cence, — and which when worn bears upon a 
region that ought not to be subjected to heat or 
pressure. In the region which this article of 
dress covers, the kidneys are situated ; and just 
below them, upon either side, large bundles of 
nerves make their exit from the spinal cord, and 
pass downward to the lower extremities. Any 



64 DRESS-REFORM. 

continued pressure over this region will tend 
to cause either a dormant condition of these 
nerves, or perhaps an irritation which will re- 
sult in pain and lameness. A young lady of 
my acquaintance — who, because it is the fash- 
ion, feels herself obliged to wear one of these 
deformities — always suffers a severe pain in 
the hip as a penalty, and yet she must wear 
it when sfte goes out, for "how she would look 
without it!" 

Will the time ever come when women will as- 
sert their rights in the matter of dress, — when 
each shall be free to adopt a style which allows 
the full and free use of all the powers, both phys- 
ical and mental, with which God has endowed 
her ? It need not necessarily be one that shall 
be noticeable for its oddity ; it need not be one 
so closely resembling that of the masculine sex as 
to subject us to the charge of wishing to be men. 
I believe that about all I envy in man's apparel 
is the opportunity for pockets which it affords. 
These I would like. 

Then there is a moral side to this question of 



DRESS-REFORM. 65 

dress, which I do not propose to discuss at any- 
great length ; but I will mention it, and leave 
honest, conscientious minds to ponder and decide 
its value. Is it right for us to pay so much wor- 
ship to dress ? is it right to make it the criterion 
of respect and favor in the horse-car, in the 
church, at the party ? So long as richly dressed 
women take precedence everywhere because they 
are richly dressed, so long w T ill the tempter find 
it easier to secure his victim. Human nature is 
the same in all. Love of attention is as strong 
and legitimate in the girl who is obliged to 
earn her daily bread as in the girl whose father 
pays her bills. We all know the low wages 
received by the girls who wait upon us at the 
many stores throughout the city. These wages 
scarcely suffice, in many cases, to pay for room- 
rent and for food ! What, then, of clothes to 
wear ? Oh, shame ! upon men in this city, who, 
when the innocent girl pleads that the low 
wages offered will scarcely pay for living ex- 
penses and she demands " wherewithal shall I 
be clothed ? " — shame — yes, and God's wrath 

E 



66 DRESS-REFORM. 

— upon those who answer, " You can find some 
friend who will give you these for your com- 
pany." I am not imagining a case now, but 
telling you a fact. Then the struggle grows 
hard : the desire for dress for the sake of the 
attention, not to say the common civility, which 
is accorded to it, becomes stronger ; and, too 
often the temptation is greater than she is able 
to bear. 

Now who is to blame ? The girl, certainly ; 
but are not we, who allow so much to depend 
upon dress, somewhat — yes, greatly — responsi- 
ble for the snare which has caught her young 
feet ? Can we not help her by adopting a style 
of dress that shall not put such a difference be- 
tween the appearance of the rich and the poor ? 

There is, in the future of us all, a day when all 
these outward adornings must be laid aside, and 
when we must give an account unto Him who has 
said, u Whoso causeth one of these little ones 
that believe in me to offend, it were better that 
a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he 
be cast into the sea ; " and again, " Inasmuch 






DRESS-REFORM. 67 

as ye did it unto one of the least of these, ye 
did it unto me." 

Ladies, — I thank you for your presence here, 
and for your attention during the hour. I trust 
that the seed I have attempted to sow has fallen 
upon honest minds, and that some of it may 
spring up and bear fruit a hundred-fold. 



68 DRESS-REFORM. 



LECTURE III. 
BY MERCY B. JACKSON, M.D. 

Ladies, — We propose to speak to you this 
evening upon dress in its relations to health, its 
uses and abuses. 

Having observed the great evils that result 
from the present modes of dress, and perceiving 
that a fundamental change is needed in this 
respect, if woman's vigor and usefulness are not 
to become seriously impaired, we have been in- 
duced to speak to you, well knowing our inabil- 
ity to treat the subject in a manner worthy of its 
importance. Relying upon your indulgence, we 
would ask attention to the few thoughts which we 
have thrown together during the brief intervals 
of a busy professional life, hoping they may not 
prove wholly uninteresting and useless. 

We are living in an age of progress, when 
ideas are asserting their right to rule, and are 



DRESS-REFORM. 69 

taking the sceptre from brute force, which has 
so long held sway. Consequently, women are 
awaking to- a consciousness of powers unused, 
and of fetters on mind and limb which have 
hitherto prevented them from doing their share 
of the world's work. They see that these ob- 
structions must be removed, if they are to fill 
the places that were designed for them. 

This awakening is not confined to our own 
country, but is extending to all the civilized 
world, and even shows itself in semi-civilized 
regions. Such being the present status, it is 
a favorable time to call the attention of those 
who are desiring something better for women 
than has yet been attained to the subject of 
dress-reform. 

When new duties devolve upon us, it is wise 
to prepare ourselves for their performance. As 
the sphere of women enlarges, more and more 
is required of them ; and they should therefore 
throw off all customs that tend to cramp them 
in any direction, and should endeavor to retain 
only such as liberate and enlarge their powers, 



70 DRESS-REFORM. 

and tend to invigorate both mind and body. In 
this way alone can they prepare themselves for 
greater usefulness. 

In order to justify ourselves for endeavoring 
to change the present modes of dress, it is nec- 
essary to show that those now in vogue do not 
answer the reasonable requirements for which 
clothing was originally designed, and that, in- 
stead of being a useful servant wisely fulfilling 
the purposes of its existence, our dress has be- 
come a terrible tyrant, subjecting the human 
body to its inconvenient, unsightly, and even 
tormenting control, and bringing into subjection, 
also, the noble faculties of the mind. By the en- 
grossment of these faculties with the invention of 
an almost endless variety of unhealthy styles, so 
much time is necessarily devoted to dress that 
little or none is left for the higher and better 
purposes of mental culture. Ever since our first 
parents clothed themselves with fig-leaves in the 
garden of Eden, dress has been growing more 
and more complicated, as the centuries have 
rolled on, until now it absorbs the attention of 



DRESS-REFORM. 7 1 

many to the exclusion of all nobler thoughts and 
pursuits. 

Its earliest use was for a covering, that our 
nakedness might not appear ; but the climate of 
a large portion of the globe makes it necessary, 
in order to protect the body from the inclemen- 
cies of the weather and preserve its temperature 
sufficiently high to prevent the congestions and 
inflammations that are so dangerous to health 
and even life. 

Let us consider what are the legitimate require- 
ments of clothing, since it appears absolutely 
indispensable over a large part of the globe. 
First of all, it should be of such material as will 
protect the body from the too heating rays of 
the sun in warm climates, and induce so high a 
temperature in colder regions that the body will 
not suffer from chill. In the second place, it 
should be of such material that its weight will 
not be an incumbrance, or cause fatigue during 
exercise. In the third place, it should be so 
fashioned that its weight will rest mostly upon 
the shoulders, and not bear too heavily upon 



72 DRESS-REFORM. 

the abdominal muscles, as, otherwise, it will lead 
to displacement and subsequent disease of the 
internal organs. In the fourth place, it should 
not press too closely upon any part of the body, 
lest it obstruct the circulation of the blood, and 
cause serious disturbances in the whole physical 
economy. When any thing impedes the current 
of the blood and prevents its proper aeration and 
purification, this fluid, instead of being fitted to 
supply the waste of our bodies, becomes an ac- 
tive agent in producing disease ; and the effete 
matter retained in it is carried to every part of 
the body, poisoning the very sources of life. In 
the fifth place, it should be fashioned in such a 
manner as to furnish the least possible obstruc- 
tion to locomotion, and indeed to all motion, so 
that we may be able to walk and work with 
nearly the same ease as if divested of all 
covering. 

We shall see how poorly these requirements 
have been fulfilled in the dress worn by women. 

The clothing of men, in all Christian coun- 
tries, has for a long time subserved the legiti- 






DRESS-REFORM. 73 

mate uses for which it was designed. Each 
part is fitted to the body so as to keep the tem- 
perature equable. Its weight is borne on the 
shoulders ; and while it is loose enough to give 
free circulation, it is yet not loose enough to 
lessen its protecting power. The dress hats of 
gentlemen form the most prominent exception 
to the adaptation of their clothing to proper 
uses ; but those are now little worn, except in 
dress circles. The covering of men's feet is 
admirably adapted to their protection from cold 
and damp, — two great sources of disease. The 
soles of their boots are broad enough to allow 
the foot to expand, as Nature designed it should, 
when pressed upon by the weight of the body ; 
and the toes are wide enough to allow them to 
rest upon the sole separately, producing the 
elastic rebound which enables one to walk with- 
out fatigue. That there are men foolish enough 
to cramp their feet in narrow boots, we are 
aware ; but these are a very small minority, and 
are not the leading ones who are copied by the 
masses. 
4 



74 DRESS-REFORM. 

The nicely fitting pantaloons, that permit such 
freedom in the movement of the lower limbs ; 
the snug vests, that preserve a uniform tempera- 
ture of the chest ; and the little sack-coat that, 
while finishing the toilet, so little inconveniences 
the wearer ; and the over-coat, so easily removed 
when the temperature of the place renders it 
unnecessary, — these are all beautifully adapted 
to their legitimate uses. 

It is true that fashion at times renders each 
of these garments less useful and convenient, as 
when dandies appear with pantaloons so tight 
as scarcely to permit bending the knees, or with 
vests open nearly to the waist that they may 
display their faultless linen ; but these freaks of 
fashion are of short duration, and the good 
sense of the masses does not adopt such ex- 
tremes. 

But how has it been with the clothing of 
women ? Has that been more and more con- 
formable to its proper uses ? Would that we 
could say yes. Instead of this being the case, it 
would almost seem that the ingenuity of the sex 






DRESS-REFORM. 75 

had been exercised to find shapes that would 
most effectually subvert the designs of Nature. 
The feet have been covered with boots which 
are wholly inadequate to furnish protection from 
cold and damp, while they are so shaped as to 
compress the foot into the narrowest compass, 
and to crowd the toes upon each other within 
the narrow tip. This prevents the action of the 
muscles of the foot in walking, and throws the 
whole labor upon the muscles of the leg, thus 
disabling our women from healthful exercise to 
such a degree that not one in twenty can walk 
three miles without complete exhaustion. 

The Chinese shock our moral sense when they 
deform the feet of their women by merciless com- 
pression in infancy ; but we at the same time tol- 
erate — nay, encourage — ours in wearing such 
covering as lays the foundation for consequences 
more fatal than theirs. The high heels which 
have been so fashionable, but which are now, 
happily, less used, are one of the most fruitful 
sources of disease. They not only cause contrac- 
tions of the muscles of the leg, so great in some 



76 DRESS-REFORM. 

instances as to make a surgical separation of 
them necessary, but by raising the heel they 
bring the weight of the body upon the toes, and 
thus induce the corns and bunions that alone 
suffice to make locomotion very painful. More- 
over, by inclining the body forward, they throw 
the uterus out of its normal position, and oblige 
the ligaments that are designed to steady it to 
remain constantly in action, in order to restore it 
to its proper place. These muscles kept contin- 
ually on the stretch soon lose their contractile 
power ; and then the uterus, thrown out of place by 
the unnatural pose of the body, remains in this 
abnormal position, and often becomes adherent 
to the adjacent parts. When this is the case, a 
most serious disease is entailed upon the sufferer. 
The compression of the calf of the leg by tight 
ligatures, intended to keep the hose in place, 
is very injurious, for it often causes distended 
veins, and checks the natural flow of blood in 
all the vessels of the leg. We find cramps as 
the result of this in some cases, numbness in 
others, and coldness in a great many. 



DRESS-REFORM. 77 

The closed drawers that are worn by most 
women at the present time are extremely un- 
healthy, inducing a train of evils which cannot 
be spoken of here, but which seriously deterio- 
rate the health. 

The corsets that encase the body in a prison 
barred with whalebone and steel are often so 
closely applied that the action of the muscles 
within is rendered almost null. This stricture 
about the waist, by which the liver is so pressed 
upon that its proper action is greatly obstructed, 
compresses at the same time the large blood- 
vessels of the trunk in such a manner as to seri- 
ously check the flow of the vital current within. 
In consequence of this, all the functions of the 
body are carried on with constantly diminishing 
force, until the health is completely destroyed 
and an invalid life makes it impossible longer 
to endure the pressure of the agent that has 
wrought such fearful changes in the formerly 
healthy body. 

The evil just spoken of is not always so 
great as here depicted : it is proportioned to 



78 DRESS-REFORM. 

the amount of compression, and the strength of 
the frame subjected to it. The less the com- 
pression, the less the evil ; and the more vigorous 
the body, the better able it is to resist the influ- 
ence, and to carry on its work in spite of the 
obstacles that oppose it. 

Such consequences as we have mentioned, 
one might think would be sufficiently alarm- 
ing to banish from intelligent society the health- 
destroying corset. But no ! The Juggernaut 
of fashion demands the sacrifice, and its victims 
must fall down and be crushed by its senseless 
power. 

Next come the skirts, which hang upon the 
weakened muscles of the abdomen. These gar- 
ments are often many in number, and at the 
present time are generally weighted with heavy 
trimmings reaching to the knee or hips. All 
this burdensome material is fastened tightly 
about the waist to prevent dragging ; while the 
skirt is either so long as to obstruct the move- 
ment of the feet in walking, or, still worse, it trails 
upon the dirtv sidewalks, gathering up the refuse 



DRESS-REFORM. 79 

of the streets, and disgusting those whose sense 
of neatness makes them shudder to think of the 
condition of a nice dress after a public prom- 
enade. 

These long dresses, heavily trimmed, not 
only entail the evils mentioned, but by their 
weight drag down the contents of the abdo- 
men, and produce the many diseases peculiar to 
women, which are the opprobrium medicate of 
the present day. Then comes the over-skirt, 
which is looped up on the back and sustained 
there by " bishops " of greater or less weight and 
density. The mass thus formed heats the spine, 
prevents the wearer from resting comfortably 
on chair or seat, and fatigues the back by an 
unnatural position, as well as by the weight thus 
heaped upon it. Could any thing more un- 
sightly be invented ? Or could one imagine 
that any lady, who naturally desires to look 
well and to be prepossessing in her appearance, 
would willingly array herself in such a costume ? 

The present short walking-dresses are less 
objectionable than most that have been worn 



80 D^ESS-REFORM. 

for a long time ; but, in order to have them con- 
form to the proper standard, the over-skirt should 
be dispensed with, and the length curtailed so 
that they would just touch the instep, and be of 
the same length all round. Some simple trim- 
ming might be used without impairing their 
usefulness. The waist, too, should be so loose 
as to allow the full expansion of the chest with 
every inspiration. 

We had hoped that this short walking-dress, 
so comfortable and so generally liked, might 
retain its place in the wardrobe of women ; but 
to our regret and mortification we see it grad- 
ually abandoned by almost all, and a demi-train 
substituted, which outrages all sense of neatness 
by trailing along the dirty sidewalks. Or, if the 
wearer would lift it from the ground, she is 
obliged to swoop it up most ungracefully, or to 
clutch it still more awkwardly with both hands, 
thus throwing out the elbows, and reminding 
one, by the figure she makes, of a turkey dis- 
playing his plumage. 

The evils arising from tight dressing are too 



DRESS-REFORM. 8 1 

numerous to be mentioned here, but they are 
alone sufficient to destroy the health of the most 
robust person ; and even when the pressure thus 
occasioned is only so little that it is regarded as 
almost nothing by ladies generally, it is suffi- 
cient to lower the standard of health to a con- 
siderable degree. 

No dress should be so small as to require the 
least possible effort to fasten it. It should be 
closed by merely bringing the edges together, 
without contraction of the chest ; and, when 
closed, the chest should be as free to expand as 
if nothing covered it. With such garments, the 
necessity of support from the shoulders will be 
apparent. 

When any injurious garment is first worn, 
Nature remonstrates, and pain or inconvenience 
is felt ; but if we neglect these monitions, and 
continue its use, the warning grows less and less 
loud, until, as it were, discouraged by our wilful 
neglect of her cautions, Nature ceases to remon- 
strate. But, though the sufferings first felt are 
now unnoticed, the penalty is sure to be in- 
4* F 



82 DRESS-REFORM. 

flicted, and we pay dearly for our disobedience 
in impaired health, weakened digestion, poor 
circulation, diseased liver, restless nights, and 
the whole host of sufferings that follow in the 
train of outraged Nature. 

I have already made it apparent, I trust, to 
any one at all acquainted with physiology, that 
the present style of wpman's attire is subversive 
of the uses which dress should serve, and that 
a radical change must be made before it can be 
adapted to health and comfort. 

It is desirable that the dress of women should 
be pleasing to the eye as well as convenient for 
the uses for which it is designed. The element 
of beauty is everywhere visible in the creation of 
God ; and the love of it is deeply implanted in 
our natures, so that " a thing of beauty is a joy 
for ever." We should not therefore despise the 
charms that dress can give, nor neglect the 
adorning of our persons ; but we should also re- 
member that health and comfort are not to be 
sacrificed to beauty, nor our families deprived of 
the necessaries of life that we may shine in 
beautiful garments. 



DRESS-REFORM. 83 

Let us remember that the most beautiful cos- 
tume embraces the idea of use, and of adap- 
tation to the ends that should be sought in all 
clothing ; namely, the sustaining a proper tem- 
perature of the body, the lightness necessary 
to allow easy exercise, and the weight mostly 
resting on the shoulders. The dress should not 
fit too closely, lest it may disturb circulation ; 
nor be made so voluminous as greatly to hinder 
motion, or to make it fatiguing. 

There is another point, concerning the dresses 
of infants, upon which I desire to speak ; and I 
wish I could speak loud enough for every mother 
in the world to hear. But, as I cannot do this, I 
will ask you all to aid in extending the word, 
until, with united power, we may be able to in- 
duce all mothers who care more for the health 
and comfort of their offspring than they do for 
the behests of fashion to adopt a better dress 
for their children than is at present worn. Such 
a dress, being often seen, may in time become 
fashionable, and then those whose only guide in 
preparing the wardrobe of the coming child is 



84 DRESS-REFORM. 

the reigning style will be led into better modes, 
so that more convenient and comfortable gar- 
ments will be made. 

The special evil of which I speak is the long 
skirts, dresses, and cloaks, which are now the 
fashion for babies. I feel the deepest commis- 
eration for a delicate child that has hung upon 
its tender body a flannel skirt a yard long, and 
over that a cotton skirt equally long, and over 
that a dress to cover both, often weighted with 
heavy embroidery, and, if the child is carried out, 
a double cloak longer than all, so that the skirts 
reach nearly to the floor as the infant is borne 
on the nurse's arm. The longer the clothes, 
the more aristocratic the baby, would seem to 
be the idea of the mother ! Think of all this 
weight attached around the waist of the child, 
and hanging over the little feet, pressing down 
the toes, and even forcing the feet out of their 
natural position ! How much of deformity and 
suffering this fashion produces, none can tell ; 
but that it is a great discomfort to the baby, 
every thinking mother must perceive. 



DRESS-REFORM. 85 

High necks and long sleeves are now fashion- 
able for babies ; but how soon they may be laid 
aside for low necks and short sleeves' cannot be 
foreseen. That will depend on the enlighten- 
ment of women. To "expose the delicate chest 
and arms of a young child in our cold, change- 
able climate, is often to bring on pneumonia, 
and greatly to lessen the chances of life. And, 
should life be spared, there will be sleepless 
nights and anxious days for the mother, as well 
as great suffering for the child. 

All modes of dress that injure the human 
body, or make the wearer uncomfortable, are 
strictly within the province of the doctor ; and 
he should never lose an opportunity to benefit 
his patients by teaching them the evils to be 
avoided by a sensible reform in dress. The pro- 
test of one physician may do much; but what 
an incalculable amount of good could be ..done 
if the whole profession, as with one voice, would 
unite in decrying all the forms of dress which 
torture mankind and bring on the innumerable 
diseases that shorten life and render it misera- 



86 DRESS-REFORM. 

ble ! I speak to you as mothers and sisters who 
desire to know the best ways to make life healthy 
and happy for yourselves and for those you love. 

There is another evil demanding our earnest 
consideration, and it is one of the growing evils 
of the day. I mean the immense labor bestowed 
on all the garments, and extending to every 
article that is worn, so that those whose circum- 
stances demand economy must give a large 
portion of their time to the making and em- 
bellishing of their wardrobes. By - exhausting 
strength in too long-continued labor, they de- 
prive themselves of sleep, " tired Nature's sweet 
restorer," and have no time for intellectual pur- 
suits. Is not the life more than meat, and the 
body more than raiment ? And shall we neglect 
the soul and intellect God has given us, that we 
may adorn the perishing body ? 

Our only hope for the redemption of woman 
from the thraldom of dress lies in the belief that 
her hitherto limited sphere of activities has 
been so insufficient for her intellectual occupa- 
tions that she has been forced to expend her 



DRESS-REFORM. 87 

thoughts in decorating her person, instead of in 
enlarging her mind. Had she been led to use 
her executive powers in organizing benevolent 
enterprises and carrying them out, or in mould- 
ing the characters of her children by sharing 
their higher pursuits, she would not only have 
impressed herself forcibly upon the institutions 
of the country, but her mind and heart would 
have been filled with more ennobling and satisfy- 
ing enjoyments, and thus the persevering efforts 
now made to frivolous ends would have been 
turned into channels of usefulness. 

It is, however, better that the feminine intel- 
lect should have been actively employed in in- 
venting new forms of dress and embellishment, 
than that it should have lain dormant, and been 
reduced to almost complete inanition for want 
of any activity. By this exercise of its powers, 
it has been in a measure strengthened and pre- 
pared for the important labors which will soon 
be required of it 

The day is not far distant when woman is to 
take part in all which concerns humanity ; and 



88 DRESS-REFORM. 

the added responsibility that such freedom must 
bring should stimulate her to be worthy of the 
blessings to be conferred, which, when they 
come, will place her where her influence will 
be as extensive as her abilities and contribu- 
tions to the general good deserve. 

If she is to fulfil the high trusts that shall be 
given her, she must emancipate herself from 
the engrossments of fashion, must be clothed in 
garments that will contribute to her comfort, and 
must cast aside those . that destroy her health, 
cripple her energies, and take all her time and 
means for their manufacture. She must seek 
first the liberal education that has so long been 
considered necessary for her brothers, in order 
that they may be prepared for the varied duties 
that are required of them. When the leading 
women of the age, and those blessed with wealth 
and high position, come to see that a cultivated 
mind in a healthy body is more to be desired, 
and better calculated to lead to honor and es- 
teem, than the most costly or elaborate clothing, 
women will turn their attention to these higher 



DRESS-REFORM. 89 

objects, and will then make it easy for others 
less favored to follow in the same pathway. A 
great responsibility is resting upon women who 
are blessed with the wealth and station that carry 
so much influence with them. They could easily 
change the fashions of dress so as to remove the 
objections to present modes, and by so doing 
they would contribute greatly to the health and 
happiness of the wearers. 

The lavish expenditure in dress, so common at 
the present time, is a matter of serious concern 
to those who reflect much upon its tendencies. 
Society, by denying to women the propriety of 
earning money, or of entering into any business 
that will make them self-supporting, fixes the 
badge of poverty upon all who attempt to pro- 
vide in this manner for their own or their fami- 
lies' wants. Thus the burden of mortified pride 
is added to the exhausting labor of self-support, 
which is also rendered heavier for women than 
for men by the inferior wages the former receive, 
and by the necessarily higher cost of their ward- 
robe when they procure it made for themselves, 



90 DRESS-REFORM. 

as men procure theirs. In consequence of this 
expense, women seek to eke out their small in- 
comes by sewing their own clothes ; and, when 
engaged in business, this must be done after the 
regular task of the day is finished. Such weary- 
ing occupation often keeps them at work till the 
small hours of the night, and thus deprives them 
of the rest which is needful to refresh their tired 
bodies, and to render them fit for the labor of the 
coming day. We need not wonder that many 
women break down under these accumulated 
burdens, especially when we consider that they 
have to do all this in clothing not fitted to pre- 
serve health, but rather calculated to fetter their 
powers, and to make work and motion a painful 
effort. Headaches and indigestions must result 
from the constant application of eyes, mind, and 
muscles to this most sedentary of all employ- 
ments ; and the persons so occupied become 
depressed in spirits, unacquainted with the ac- 
tivities of the world, and little fitted to bear 
their part in those conversations and amuse- 
ments which should make the family the centre 






DRESS-REFORM. 9 1 

of intellectual and affectional enjoyments, and 
which alone can retain husbands and brothers 
in the pure and tranquillizing atmosphere of a 
happy and cultivated home. 

We are a republican nation, at least in form, 
and have no distinct classes where the lines are 
so tightly drawn that citizens cannot pass from 
one to the other. In accord with the genius of 
our institutions, all desire to attain to the high- 
est places ; and consequently an elevating im- 
pulse is given, which is calculated to foster 
enterprise and thrift, and to ennoble the people 
by the stimulus of a possibility of reaching 
places of honor and profit, even from the lowest 
points. This is one of the greatest blessings 
that a republican government confers upon its 
people. We should therefore, as good citizens 
and as Christian women, do all we can to foster 
this self-respect in those less favored than our- 
selves, and should never think that their depres- 
sion will elevate us. 

I know it will be said that the wealthy have 
a perfect right to indulge in all the luxuries 



92 DRESS-REFORM. 

that they may choose, and that they help the 
poorer classes by distributing money amongst 
them, when they hire them to make their elab- 
orate garments. But let us look carefully at 
this matter, and see if it will bear the test of 
close examination. Is it a benefit to the poor 
sempstress to give her more sewing, when at 
the same time we oblige her, by our example, to 
spend all she gets for it in adorning her own 
dresses, that she may appear respectably in the 
presence of the elegantly clothed ladies who 
patronize her ? Has any one a right to destroy 
the beautiful body God has given, or even to 
injure its wonderful mechanism and to throw it 
out of balance, so that it can perform its in- 
tended work only with great pain and suffering ? 
Has any one a right to tempt others to do 
wrong, or by example to lead them on to de- 
stroy their vigor and usefulness by unhealthful 
modes of dress, or by the overwork needed to 
embellish them ? Did not the great Apostle Paul 
teach us our duty in these respects, when he 
said, " If meat make my brother to offend, I 



DRESS-REFORM. 93 

will eat no flesh while the world standeth " ? 
Have not all of us duties to society and to our 
fellow-beings that should never be lost sight of ? 
And have we not still higher duties to our 
Maker, which require us to preserve the health 
of our bodies, that we may be able to perform 
the work He intended for us ? And, finally, 
have we not a duty to our country, to check, as 
far as we can, the growing evils of extravagance 
that are now undermining the very foundations 
of our social life, and threatening to demoral- 
ize it ? 

There is still another class of women who are 
seriously injured by the elaborate style of cloth- 
ing now worn by all classes, and this is the mid- 
dle class, who live in handsome, well-furnished 
# 

residences, and make a fine appearance at church 
and on the street, and who yet cannot afford to 
hire their dressmaking done. Not recognizing 
the truth that all useful labor is honorable, 
and desiring to appear more wealthy than they 
really are, they are led by false pride to conceal 
the fact that they are their own dressmakers. 



94 DRESS-REFORM. 

The burden of making these over-trimmed 
dresses falls heavily upon them, and, by keep- 
ing them in the house plying the needle, it de- 
prives them of that daily out-of-door exercise 
which is so necessary to vigorous health. Thus 
all the time left from the cares of home is spent 
in the excessive ornamentation demanded by 
the tyranny of fashion, and none is found for 
reading or intellectual pursuits of any sort. 

Nor are these the only evils arising from the 
extravagant modes of dress, and the extravagant 
style of living which accompanies them ; for the 
husband or father who loves his family is unwill- 
ing to deny them the money necessary to pur- 
chase these elegancies, and he often goes beyond 
his means that his family may appear as well as 
his neighbor's. This leads him to incur obliga- 
tions which he cannot meet, and financial embar- 
rassment and ruin stare him in the face. If he is 
in a place of trust, he is tempted to borrow, as he 
leniently calls it, from the funds that have been 
placed in his hands, thinking that he can soon 
return the sum, and that no one will be the wiser 



DRESS-REFORM. 95 

or be injured by what he does. But at last, after 
many shifts, he can no longer conceal the deficit ; 
and then he is ruined in purse and character, 
thrust out of his place, and sometimes brought to 
self-destruction by the desperation that follows 
his exposure ! 

Is not society accountable in a great measure 
for these and similar breaches of trust in private 
citizens and public servants ? And who but 
women control the customs of society, and make 
them either prudent, wise, and moral, or extrava- 
gant, foolish, and immoral ? I appeal to the moral 
sense of the ladies present, and I ask them if 
they are willing, by their example arid influence, 
longer to countenance a mode of dress which is 
so little fitted to answer the reasonable demands 
that should be made upon it, and so destructive 
of health and of morals ? 

If we have convinced you that the serious 
charges brought against the dress of the present 
day are well founded, you will surely be unwill- 
ing longer to participate in its follies, not to say 
in its crimes against the peace and welfare of 
society. 



g6 DRESS-REFORM. 

What, then, shall be done to inaugurate a true 
reform in this important direction ? 

To answer this may require wiser heads than 
ours ; but the first step is taken when women 
are convinced that there is need of reform. 
After that, clear heads and tender consciences 
will address themselves to the task, and will 
soon find ways to accomplish it. Combination 
and organization are required to assist in the 
work, and numerical strength is needed to over- 
come long-established customs. What would be 
martyrdom for a few to attempt would be easy 
for masses to accomplish. If five hundred ear- 
nest, intelligent women should band themselves 
together, and agree to discard as soon as possible 
all garments that prove injurious to health, 
and should then set their inventive faculties to 
work to produce a simple and beautiful style of 
apparel that might be free from the objections 
brought against our present modes, — a style 
which should have the great merit of pleasing 
the artistic sense, and becoming the wearer, and 
in which age, condition of life, and personal pe- 



DRESS-REFORM. 97 

culiarities would be so considered as to make 
each dress appropriate to its owner, and express- 
ive of her character, instead of being a mere 
duplicate of some other garment, without regard 
to personal fitness, — could this be done, the 
needed work of dress-reform would be half ac- 
complished. Let us not attempt to imitate the 
fashions of the Old World, which are unsuited to 
our republican nation, and not in accord with our 
institutions. We are a young and vigorous peo- 
ple, and should no more attempt to copy the 
dress and style of living of the European nations 
than we do their laws and institutions. Let us 
be the inventors of our own fashions, and let 
them conform to the character of our institu- 
tions in their simplicity and adaptation to our 
peculiar wants, and then they will become the 
exponent of our own nationality. 



98 DRESS-REFORM. 



LECTURE IV. 

/ 

BY ARVILLA B. HAYNES, M.D. 

Ladies, — When I was invited to take part in 
these lectures on Dress-Reform, I consented to 
do so, not because I thought I was qualified above 
others to speak or teach on this subject, but 
because I felt a deep interest in what was to 
be brought before you. 

I consider the theme one of great impor- 
tance, — so great, indeed, that it cannot be over- 
estimated. When we see disease the rule, and 
health the exception, it seems fitting for women 
to pause and inquire the cause of this unnatural 
state of things. And the answer comes back to 
us from every side, "There is a perversion of 
the natural functions, and a disregard of hygienic 
laws." 

In the brief time allotted to a single lecture, 
it would be impossible to exhaust a subject of so 



DRESS-REFORM. 99 

much interest, or one so fruitful of good and ill 
to mankind. As it has been my privilege to 
observe from the standpoint of a physician, I 
shall speak from the same, hoping by so doing 
to speak with greater authority. And my en- 
deavor will be to present to you the practical 
side of this question, leaving the artistic and 
aesthetic for other hands. If I repeat any thing 
that has been said by those who have preceded 
me, I hope you will consider the statement to 
be of so much importance that it insists upon 
arresting your attention. 

I propose to speak on the influence of external 
conditions on the human body. 

The conditions that demand our attention in 
connection with the subject before us are me- 
chanical pressure, and sudden alternations of 
temperature arising from the application of cold 
and dampness to the surface of the body. Both 
of these conditions are greatly affected by our 
artificial covering, — the dress. 

As we approach this temple of nature, the 
human body, examine its structure and observe 



IOO DRESS-REFORM. 

its perfect adaptation to uses, we see much that 
excites our wonder and admiration. Looking at 
the lowest forms of animal life, we find they are 
made up of an aggregation of cells, every part 
like every other part, and all homogeneous in 
character. As we rise a little in the scale, there 
is a differentiation of parts : organs are devel- 
oped, at first rudimentary. A little higher still, 
these organs are more fully developed, and others 
are added. And so on, until we pass through 
the different classes, and arrive at the vertebrate 
animals and man. 

In these highest organisms, where work is to 
be done, there is a division of the labor, and 
organs and systems are set apart to perform 
certain functions. In studying this complex 
structure, we must first understand its anatomy, 
or the normal relation of one part to another, 
before we can understand deformities, or a de- 
parture from the normal relation. We must also 
understand its physiology, or the functions of 
the several systems or organs, before we can 
understand any perversion of these functions. 



DRESS-REFORM. I O I 

So you will allow me to examine a little the 
body we would properly clothe, and see the re- 
lation of one part to another, also the functions 
these several organs and systems are called upon 
to perform. By so doing we shall better under- 
stand the influence of the external conditions 
furnished by dress. 

We see the human body as a symmetrical 
whole. It has a bony framework or skeleton, 
that gives form and outline to the body. This 
is clothed with muscles, that are traversed by 
a system of glands, and permeated by blood- 
vessels and nerves. Over all is placed a cover- 
ing, the integument or skin. 

Within, we find three great cavities, — the cra- 
nial cavity, the cavity of the chest, and the 
abdominal cavity. Within the cavity of the 
cranium is lodged that great nervous centre, 
the brain ; and intimately connected with this 
is the spinal cord, enclosed in a bony canal. 
From these two nervous centres proceed nerves 
of sensation and of voluntary motion, which 
serve as channels of communication to all parts 
of the body. 



102 DRESS-REFORM. 

The cavity of the chest is formed principally 
by the ribs, attached to the vertebrae posteriorly, 
and to the sternum anteriorly, by cartilage. Its 
walls are more or less flexible. Within the chest 
the heart and lungs are located. 

Below the chest we have the abdominal cavity, 
with muscular walls. It contains the liver on 
the right, on the left the spleen, the stomach 
somewhat to the left, and the alimentary canal 
arranged in convolutions. Below, in the pelvis, 
are found the organs of generation. 

Each organ contained in these several cavities 
has its own peculiar work to perform ; and this 
brings us to a consideration of the various 
systems. 

The digestive system lies at the foundation of 
all the organic functions ; for on this organized 
beings depend for their growth, development, and 
maintenance during life. After a nutrient fluid 
has been elaborated by the digestive organs from 
the alimentary substances they receive, it must 
be conveyed to all parts of the body to be assim- 
ilated ; hence the circulating system. This nu- 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 03 

trient fluid must be maintained in a state of 
purity, and we have excreting organs. The 
kidneys belong to the excreting organs ; and the 
function of the skin is correlated to that of 
the kidneys. The respiratory system is of im- 
portance in maintaining the blood in a state of 
purity, as it performs the double office of remov- 
ing carbonic acid and of introducing oxygen. 
All these are separate and distinct functions, yet 
they are mutually dependent on one another ; 
and on their uniform and harmonious operation 
the life of the individual depends. 

In the normal condition, or in a state of health, 
these functions go on without consciousness ; 
that is, they are involuntary. The heart pulsates 
with the same regularity, asleep or awake ; res- 
piration, also, is carried on in a tranquil and uni- 
form manner. The kidneys fulfil their office of 
excretion ; and the skin is at all times eliminat- 
ing the substances that would be deleterious if 
allowed to remain in the system. The stomach, 
likewise, performs its part of the digestive 
process, without entering any protest through 
the nervous system. 



104 DRESS-REFORM. 

The functions that are of primary importance 
to us in considering the influence of external 
conditions are the circulation and the respira-. 
tion ; and of these I wish to speak more fully. 
They also hold an important place among the 
organic functions. 

The circulating system consists of the heart, 
the arteries, capillaries, and veins, and the fluid 
contained therein, — the blood. Of this system 
the heart is the central organ ; and it is a muscle 
of great strength in proportion to its size. The 
arteries are hollow tubes, somewhat elastic, and 
with a contractile power. They are always full. 
They convey blood from the heart, and begin 
there as one large vessel ; but soon they send off 
branches that divide and subdivide, till they ter- 
minate in numerous minute capillaries, that are 
intermediate between the arteries and veins. 
The capillaries are microscopic in size, and form 
a network in the tissues. The veins begin at the 
capillaries ; and as they go towards the heart 
they unite, until they terminate at the heart as 
two large vessels, one bringing the blood from 



DRESS-REFORM. 105 

the head and upper extremities, and the other 
from the trunk and lower extremities. The 
arteries convey the blood outward from the heart, 
and are deep-seated ; the veins return the blood 
to the heart, and are both deep-seated and super- 
ficial. The veins return the blood of the general 
circulation to the right auricle of the heart. 
From this it is forced into the right ventricle, 
thence into the pulmonary artery, and then i: is 
conveyed to the lungs. From the lungs it is re- 
turned by the pulmonary veins to the left auricle 
of the heart ; it then passes into the left ventri- 
cle, and from this into the arteries ; and is then 
conveyed over the system, and returned again to 
the right side of the heart. 

This is the general circulation, and it is carried 
on with great rapidity. The whole amount of 
blood in the body is estimated as about one- 
fifth or one-eighth of its weight ; so that in 
a body weighing 1 20 lbs. we should have about 
15 lbs. of blood. The capacity of the chambers 
of the heart is from ij to 2 oz. With the lower 
estimate, the heart pulsating sixty times per 
5* 



I06 DRESS-REFORM. 

minute, which is the average rate, the whole 
amount of blood in the system will pass through 
the heart in about three minutes. The circula- 
tion, when unimpeded, is carried on in a regular 
and uniform manner, every part receiving its 
normal quantity of blood. The lungs, located 
upon the right and left sides of the chest, are 
essentially composed of the blood-vessels, and 
the numerous and minute divisions of the 
bronchi that terminate in a cluster of air-cells. 
They are supplied with nerves and glands, and 
are all held together by a delicate tissue or 
membrane. We see the same arrangement of 
the blood-vessels in the lungs as elsewhere. 
The pulmonary artery enters the lungs as one 
large vessel, and divides into numerous minute 
branches, terminating in capillaries ; and the 
veins begin at the capillaries, as small vessels 
that unite and return the blood to the left au- 
ricle of the heart. The circulation of the blood 
through the lungs is termed the lesser circu- 
lation ; but it is a very important part of 
the economy of the system. The arrange- 



DRESS-REFORM. 107 

ment of the blood-vessels in the lungs serves 
admirably for the re-creation and purification 
of the blood. The minute capillaries form a 
network "around the air-cells, and the blood is 
separated from the air in the cells by the most 
delicate of tissues, which allows only gases to 
pass through it. Here the exchange is made : 
the blood takes oxygen from the respired air, 
and gives up the carbon which it has received 
from waste material, and which acts as a poison 
when it remains in the system. 

Respiration is one of the most important of 
the organic functions ; and it is only by the con- 
stant and uniform flow of blood through the 
lungs, — and it passes through the lungs with the 
same rapidity that it passes through the heart, 
— and the no less constant and regular act of 
respiration, that the blood is kept in a condition 
to serve the purpose of nutrition. 

Let us now look at the influence of mechani- 
cal pressure on these functions, which are per- 
formed in such a regular and uniform manner by 
a structure so complicated and delicate. In the 



108 DRESS-REFORM. 

arrangement of the organs in the cavities of the 
body there are no empty spaces. Every organ 
is in close relation to some other part or organ ; 
and when one is pressed out of its normal posi- 
tion it must encroach on the space allotted to 
another. The chest-walls are more or less flexi- 
ble ; and when mechanical pressure is made 
around the lower portion of the chest, and over 
the free or floating ribs, it lessens materially 
the capacity of the cavity of the chest, and 
interferes very essentially with the full and free 
expansion of the lungs. 

When the air-cells of the lungs are not filled 
with air at every inspiration, the blood is imper- 
fectly aerated. The amount of oxygen supplied 
by the respired air is not in proportion to the 
amount of carbon to be eliminated. Consequently 
the blood remains more or less carbonized, and 
is unfit for the purpose of nutrition. This con- 
dition of the blood reacts on the nervous system, 
and through it on all the organic functions. The 
free action of the heart is impeded, also the reg- 
ular contractions of the diaphragm, — that great 



DRESS-REFORM. 109 

muscle by which tranquil respiration is per- 
formed. The liver is displaced, and encroaches 
upon the space of the other abdominal organs. 
The free movement of the stomach is impeded, 
if active digestion is going on in that organ. 

When pressure is made over this region, 
there cannot be natural motion in any part of 
the body. As soon as vigorous exercise is en- 
gaged in, every part of the system calls for oxy- 
gen. In order to supply it, the lungs take on 
increased action : respiration is quickened. In- 
stead of breathing sixteen times per minute, the 
normal number, the respiratory effort is increased 
to twenty per minute ; yet at this rapid rate the 
lungs are unable to meet the demands made upon 
them, and fatigue soon follows. All vital acts are 
peculiarly destructive of their agents. 

The corset, as now manufactured and worn, is 
loosely hooked around the waist. Owing to its 
own weight and to that of the clothing buttoned 
over it, it drops down till it rests upon the hips. 
This arrangement does not remove the pressure 
caused by the dragging down of skirts at the 



no 



waist : it only changes it from one point to an- 
other, and the result is equally injurious. When 
the clothing is worn in this way, pressure is 
made over the abdomen, the convolutions of the 
intestines are crowded together, and the weight 
of all the contents of the abdomen is thrown, 
more or less, upon the organs within the pelvis. 

The steel spring in the front of the corset is 
used as a support for the body. It presses upon 
the stomach, causing tenderness of the great 
solar plexus of the sympathetic nerves that lie 
posterior to the stomach. It weakens the ab- 
dominal muscles, and destroys in a measure the 
true vertical bearing of the body. 

When this vertical bearing of the body is 
maintained, every part above rests upon that 
below. The head rests upon the upper part of 
the vertebral column, the weight of the trunk 
upon the hips ; and the same plan is carried out 
through the lower extremities to the arch of the 
foot. When the body is in this position, the ver- 
tebral column has two curves, — a lesser curve 
above, that gives increased capacity to the chest, 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 1 1 

and a greater one below. Then the abdominal 
muscles are tense, and the weight of the con- 
tents of the abdomen is thrown upon the pubic 
portion of the pelvis. But when these muscles 
are weakened and relaxed, and the greater and 
lower curve in the spinal column is impaired, 
owing to pressure from above, the weight of the 
contents of the abdomen is thrown into the pel- 
vic cavity, causing displacement and prolapsis of 
the organs situated there. 

Since strings have been discarded, and firm 
hooks and eyes used to fasten the corset, there 
may have been a decrease in chest diseases, but 
there has been a corresponding increase in uter- 
ine diseases. Some of the mechanical supports 
that have been invented for uterine displace- 
ments are adjusted with the design of restor- 
ing the natural curve in the lower portion of 
the vertebral column, thus giving the abdom- 
inal muscles their true lifting power, and throw- 
ing the weight of the abdominal viscera upon the 
pubic bones of the pelvis, where it belongs. 

When questioned, ladies rarely admit that 



112 



DRESS-REFORM. 



they wear their clothing tight. The hand can 
be readily passed under the bands, when the 
diaphragm is relaxed and the air is expelled 
from the lungs, and their garments are there- 
fore considered loose and comfortable. They do 
appear to be so ; but this is apparent rather than 
real. If the chest is subjected to pressure for a 
considerable length of time, it adapts itself to 
that condition ; and we can go on increasing the 
pressure gradually, until we have contracted 
chest-walls and displacement of the abdominal 
organs. Such is the effect of habit on the 
system. 

When the habit is injurious, the changes it 
effects may be slow and imperceptible, but they 
will break out ultimately in disease. For, al- 
though there is a certain amount of tolerance 
in the system, no natural law can be disregarded 
from day to day without bringing, sooner or 
later, a certain retribution ; and the length of 
time before it appears will be just in proportion 
to the nature of the abuse and the amount of 
vital force that there is to resist it. 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 1 3 

Let us now try the opposite experiment, and 
begin to increase the size of the bands, and to 
allow a little more room for the movements of 
the vital organs. If we continue to do this from 
time to time, till the bands have been lengthened 
three or four inches, at the end of a year we 
shall find that they are about as tight as when 
we began to enlarge them. But in this case the 
tendency will have been towards health. The 
chest-walls have expanded, and respiration has 
been more perfectly performed. The diaphragm 
discharges its natural function ; the circulation is 
unimpeded ; and there is greater freedom in all 
the movements of the body. 

Mechanical pressure at any point retards the 
onward flow of the blood through the veins to 
the heart. The veins are superficial, or near the 
surface; and pressure around the limbs at any 
point will cause a passive congestion of the 
vessels below that point. This can be readily 
demonstrated. If you compress the veins of 
the wrist or arm, in a few minutes the veins of 
the hand and arm will be swollen. The blood 

H 



1 1 4 DRESS-REFORM. 

cannot return to the heart. The same takes 
place if there is pressure at any point around 
the lower extremities, or on any of the large 
veins. 

One of the important conditions to be main- 
tained in the adjustment of our clothing is a 
uniform temperature over the surface of the 
body, without pressure and with the least weight. 
In our climate, flannel or woollen goods, as a 
general rule, should be worn next to the skin 
over the whole body, from the neck to the wrists 
and ankles. If there is any idiosyncrasy which 
prevents this material from being thus worn, it 
should be used as the second covering. 

All the clothing should be supported from the 
shoulder. The corset should be discarded ; but 
if it must be retained as an indispensable article 
of dress, as it is now considered, it should be 
made without whalebone or steel springs, and 
should be held up by a band over the shoulder. 
All the under-clothing external to this should 
either be attached to it, or so arranged that the 
weight may rest on the shoulder. This may be 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 1 5 

managed by means of suspenders, or by a waist 
fitted to the form. The less the weight, the^bet- 
ter, provided the necessary warmth is secured. 

The length of the bands around the waist 
should be sufficient to allow the utmost freedom 
to all the movements. Nothing ought to inter- 
fere with the action of the abdominal muscles 
and the diaphragm ; and the greatest chest ca- 
pacity should be secured, in order to enable the 
lungs to perform properly the function of respi- 
ration. 

The skirts should be short enough to clear the 
pavement, and to prevent their lower edges from 
becoming damp. They should also allow free- 
dom to the feet and limbs in that most health- 
ful of all out-of-door exercise, — walking. Xo 
elastic bands should encircle the limbs at any 
point, as they retard circulation by compressing 
the blood-vessels. The stockings may be upheld 
by elastic bands attached at the waist to that 
portion of the clothing which has its support 
from the shoulder. 

When the clothing is arranged in this way, all 



1 1 6 DRESS-REFORM. 

the weight hanging from the shoulder and no 
pressure at any point, there is freedom of motion 
in every part. The organs are all in their true 
relation to one another, and their functions go 
on unimpeded. 

When the temperature is such as to require 
extra clothing or wraps for the chest and upper 
extremities, the lower extremities also should 
receive attention. In the inclement season, when 
we are liable to sudden alternations of tempera- 
ture, if the thermometer drops down to zero or 
near that point, and we go from furnace-heated 
houses into the open air, we put on cloaks or 
shawls, furs, and wraps of various kinds ; and 
encase our hands, not only in gloves or mittens, 
but in muffs. This is all right, and should be 
done ; but it is not sufficient. To the lower ex- 
tremities we should also add leggins, and a 
pair of over-drawers made either of ladies' cloth 
or flannel ; and, in wet weather, overshoes. 

When one part of the body is over-heated, 
and another part exposed, the nerves of the ex- 
posed part are rendered more sensitive to receive 
impressions. 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 1 7 

In treating of the influence of alternations of 
temperature which arise from the application 
of cold to the surface of the body, I shall use 
the word cold as meaning the absence of heat or 
caloric. Heat and light act externally as stimu- 
lants, and are among the conditions essential to 
life and health. The normal temperature of the 
body internally is one hundred degrees ; on the 
surface, it is ninety-eight ; and the vital func- 
tions cannot be carried on if the temperature is 
lowered in a considerable degree for any length 
of time. 

Cold is a sedative, and when applied to the 
surface of the body it lowers the vital powers. 
It acts on the circulation by contracting the 
blood-vessels ; and thus the blood is driven 
within from the exposed region. If one part is 
deprived of its normal quantity of blood, another 
part must have more than its normal quantity, 
consequently there must be congestion of some 
of the internal organs. This is what takes place 
when the extremities are too thinly clad to main- 
tain an equal temperature over the surface. The 



1 1 8 DRESS-REFORM. 

lungs and the uterine organs are very liable to 
congestions from this cause, and this is particu- 
larly true in regard to girls at the age of puberty. 
At that period, the vital powers have been devel- 
oping and perfecting the system; which is then 
very susceptible of external influences. Expos- 
ure to cold at this age often leads to derange- 
ments that become chronic, impairing the 
general health, and causing a vast amount of 
suffering, while in many cases they establish 
right conditions for the development of disease 
in after life. Who among us cannot trace sad 
results to only a cold ? 

A proper clothing of the extremities is one of 
the best- preventives ; and we may have con- 
gestion of any of the internal organs from a 
failure to do this. 

When there is exposure to sudden changes of 
temperature, without sufficient clothing for pro- 
tection, the impression on the nerves and on the 
circulation is often the exciting cause of acute 
disease. If we look over our medical works as 
authorities, we find a large number of diseases 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 1 9 

that are referable to this cause. Who has not 
observed the prevalence of coughs and colds, as 
soon as there is a change in the seasons, and 
summer passes into autumn ? This is because 
there is not a corresponding change in the cloth- 
ing. The function of the skin as an eliminating 
organ is checked from these sudden alternations ; 
and substances that should be removed remain 
in the system. When we remember that from 
one to three pounds of fluid pass off through the 
pores of the skin during every twenty-four hours, 
we see how important it is that the surface of the 
body should be kept at a proper and equable 
temperature for its normal action.. 

The externals of dress, though they involve a 
moral question, seem to me of far less conse- 
quence than the arrangement of the under-dress, 
for that involves health. As now generally 
worn, the under-dress is weakening the present 
generation of women ; and, from the unvarying 
laws of nature, the effect must be transmitted to 
future generations. Mothers will confer upon 
their offspring a lower and lower vitality ; and, 



120 DRESS-REFORM, 

when we consider the already fearful mortality 
in infancy and childhood, there is little hope for 
the future, unless we can have some reform in 
this direction. And when the offspring is not 
thus early cut off from mortal life, in many 
cases tendencies to disease are inherited, which 
become active sooner or later ; and thus life is 
robbed of usefulness and enjoyment. Instead 
of being self-maintaining and efficient co-work- 
ers with their fellows, such children find the 
burden of physical disability laid upon them ; 
and they drag out a miserable existence, looking 
forward to a release from their physical weak- 
ness into that greater freedom of life and activ- 
ity that they hope awaits them. 

There is to-day a growing prejudice against 
medication ; and, when disease invades the sys- 
tem, many seek through physical culture the 
means of restoration to health. The adoption 
of a hygienic dress would be one of the best 
preventives of disease ; and often some such 
reform is absolutely necessary before strength 
can be regained.' 



DRESS-REFORM. 121 

To me the future looks hopeful, when women 
realize the cause of this tendency to disease, 
when they ask for knowledge of their own or- 
ganisms, and inquire the way back to Nature. 
Let them but understand what they seek to 
know, — give them a knowledge of their own or- 
ganisms, of the relation of one part to another, 
and a knowledge of the functions these organs 
are called upon to perform, — let them understand 
also the unvarying physical laws, and the certain 
retribution that follows their perversion, and thus 
enlightened, with their naturally quick percep- 
tions, and their skill in adapting means to ends, 
they will soon render the dress of every woman 
and child conformable to the requirements of 
health. 

Then, there will be harmony throughout the 
whole human system. Every part will be in its 
true relation to every other part. All the func- 
tions will go on without consciousness. Women 
will not know they have a nervous system 
merely from the complaints it makes of abuses, 
but they will understand its higher offices. 
6 



122 DRESS-REFORM. 

The digestive apparatus will properly prepare 
the alimentary substances it receives into a 
nutrient fluid, to be conveyed to all parts of 
the system for their assimilation. The capac- 
ity of the lungs to oxygenize and decarbonize 
the blood will be equal to the demands made 
upon them, and the excreting organs will remove 
all waste and worn-out material from the body. 
No protest from any part of the system will be 
transmitted through the nerves of sensation to 
the seat of consciousness, the brain. There will 
be harmony, also, in the mental condition. The 
mind will be clear, all the faculties active, and 
every part amenable to the will will be quick to 
do its bidding. The spiritual, when not borne 
down by the physical, rises to loftier heights ; 
and there is harmony throughout the whole 
being, in a threefold sense. 

Let every woman feel the importance of these 
things, and let her appreciate the duties and 
responsibilities that rest upon her. Here is a 
large field for missionary labor ; and every one 
of my hearers should be the good angel that 



DRESS-REFORM. 12-$ 

scatters seeds of truth along her daily pathway. 
Do not excuse yourself by saying, I have not 
time or opportunity ; but begin here and now. 
Begin with your child, your friend and neigh- 
bor ; and remember for your encouragement the 
promise that " to him that hath shall be given." 
The time has come for these things ; and let us 
hope the day is not far distant when the injunc- 
tion to "know thyself" will be heeded by the 
many, instead of the few. A better humanity 
must result from awakening in the minds of 
women a desire for knowledge on matters con- 
nected with their physical welfare. When this 
knowledge is at length gained, every child will 
receive a transmitted organism that shall enable 
the good and true aspirations born in his soul to 
find right conditions for developing and blossom- 
ing into Christian grace. His life will bear fruit 
in Christian work here on earth ; and its con- 
tinuance hereafter will be the consummation of 
all that has gone before. 



124 DRESS-REFORM. 



LECTURE V. 
BY ABBA GOOLD WOOLSON. 

Ladies, — In coming before you to close this 
series of lectures upon the reforms needed in 
woman's dress, I should be presumptuous in- 
deed, were I to speak in detail of the physical 
discomfort and disease to which our present 
style of dress inevitably leads. If the able phy- 
sicians who have preceded me have not made 
such truths apparent, in their authoritative and 
emphatic statements, it would be beyond my 
power to do so. With no consultation together 
as to the views they should advance, these sev- 
eral physicians, young and middle-aged, trained 
in different parts of our country, and some of 
them in Europe, of varied learning and expe- 
rience and of different schools, have agreed in 
their assertions that the dress commonly worn 
to-day by American women is a prolific source 






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DRESS-REFORM. 1 2 5 

of bodily weakness and suffering ; and that, if 
adhered to, its tendency must be, not only to 
enfeeble the powers of women themselves, but 
seriously to impair the physical strength of the 
whole nation. No .difference of opinion has ap- 
peared as to the precise nature of the evils thus 
engendered, or the measures that should be taken 
to stay their course. 

I may therefore assume that no further argu- 
ment is needed to demonstrate that the require- 
ments of health and the styles of female attire 
which custom enjoins are in direct antagonism 
to each other. But, before passing to the con- 
sideration of other phases of the question not 
yet touched upon, it may be well to sum up 
these antagonisms, as they have been presented 
at length, in a few brief and general statements. 

It has been plainly shown that our present 
dress violates health in three important ways : 
first, by its compression of vital parts of the 
body ; second, by its great weight, and the 
faulty suspension of this weight ; and, third, 
by the unequal temperature which it induces. 



126 DRESS-REFORM. 

Thus, Health would say : " If your dress is 
to be tight, let it be tight anywhere but over 
the region between the upper, fastened ribs and 
the hips. If its weight is to be great, let it 
hang from the solid framework of the shoulders, 
not from this sensitive central region where 
there is nothing to support it. If any part is to 
be overheated, let it be the extremities, and not 
this. For here lie the vital organs whose unim- 
peded action is essential to your very life, — the 
lungs, the heart, the liver, and the stomach. 
That they may have the fullest opportunity to 
expand and move, they are covered only with 
loose flesh and a few movable bones." 

But Custom says : " Let your dress be tight 
nowhere but over this very region between the 
ribs and the hips. Loosen your clothing over 
the bone-encased shoulders ; from your hips to 
your feet hang wide-floating draperies ; but bind 
and pinch and tighten over the lower air-cells 
of the lungs, over the throbbing heart, the active 
liver, and the expanding stomach. Fortunately 
there is nothing there, by way of bones, to pre- 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 27 

vent you from squeezing yourself all you wish ; 
and only by squeezing yourself there can you be 
made beautiful in my eyes." 

She says also : " You are weaker than man 
in physical strength, from a lack of exercise in 
youth, and from an in-door life. Carry, then, 
about yourself four times as much weight as he ; 
multiply your garments ; lengthen your skirts ; 
weigh them down with ornament ; and gird 
them all over the shelf of your hips. There 
they will drag upon stomach and intestines, but 
I do not concern myself about that." 

When Health insists upon an equality of tem- 
perature, with a greater amount of clothing over 
the extremities in order to insure this equal 
warmth, Custom, as antagonistic as ever, has 
these orders to give : " Clothe slightly legs and 
arms ; but encompass your body, just where the 
active internal organs create the most heat, with 
a torrid zone, an inch or two in width, of twenty 
thicknesses of material in the form of bindings. 
Below these, plait, gather, and reduplicate your 
cloth till it is ten-fold the thickness it is above 



128 DRESS-REFORM. 

the belted zone from which the skirts depend. 
If the nerve-centres that lie beneath, in stomach 
and spine, become weakened and disordered, it 
is nothing to me." 

Health says also : " Have your dress durable 
and simple, that you may go abroad readily in 
all weathers, and be afraid of neither sun, rain, 
nor wind." But Custom makes it perishable in 
fabric, and engrossing in the care it demands ; 
and, being also burdensome and tight, it discour- 
ages exercise, save of the mildest sort and in the 
blandest weather. 

Such differences as these which have been 
pointed out are too broad to be reconciled. 
Who can wonder that we seek to change Cus- 
tom, and to work a reform in her requirements, 
since the physical laws with which these conflict 
must remain for ever inflexible ? 

In considering the hygienic aspect of this 
subject, physicians remember not only the daily 
physical discomfort and suffering of women, but 
the excessive agonies which child-birth brings 
upon them, the frequent death which it entails, 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 29 

and the inferior children to which such mothers 
must inevitably give birth. A leading female 
physician of Philadelphia is convinced, from her 
own observation, that there has been an alarm- 
ing increase of ill-health among women during 
even the past two years, and that maternity is 
fast becoming an unnaturally fearful peril. She 
believes the dress commonly worn to-day to be 
the cause of all this. 

That weakness and disease are not inherent 
in our sex, as is too commonly supposed, will be 
plainly apparent, if we remember the strength 
and vigor possessed by the women of savage 
tribes, of the toiling peasant classes of Europe, 
and of the harems of the East. What makes 
the difference in this respect between them and 
the ladies of Europe and America ? No medical 
authority who has ever worn the dress of the 
latter can doubt that the habitual disregard of 
physical laws which it imposes will alone suffice 
to account for the existence of all their diseases, 
new and old. Medical authorities who have 
never worn it may look far and wide for other 
6* 1 



130 DRESS-REFORM. 

causes, but it is because they ignore or under- 
value evils which they have never experienced. 

We are ready to trace a connection between 
two facts which Mrs. Leonowens states concern- 
ing Siamese women ; viz., that they wear only 
a few ounces of loose silk cloth for covering, and 
that they are wholly ignorant of the long train 
of female weaknesses of which we hear so 
much. 

Looking over the world at large, it would 
appear that, just in proportion as a nation advan- 
ces in general intelligence and Christian virtue, 
in just that proportion does the female half of its 
people delight in dressing so as to defy Nature's 
laws. It is a curious anomaly, which I will not 
stop to explain. So long as women remain 
heathen, they may be servile, ignorant, and friv- 
olous, but they do appear to have some respect 
for their bodies. The free-flowing outlines of 
the costumes worn by Greek and Roman maids 
and matrons were not more beautiful to the 
eye of the artist, as he pictured them in the 
sacred processions that wind across their vases 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 3 1 

and bas-reliefs, than they were conducive to the 
full development of that body whose strength 
and beauty their people worshipped with such 
reverent homage. And could mothers begirt 
with corsets, laced and panniered after the 
modes of our time, have given birth to the race 
of athletic young heroes who strove before their 
assembled countrymen for the crowns of honor 
at national games ? All the women of the East, 
as well as those of Siam, drape themselves to- 
day with light folds of unsewed cloth, and know 
nothing of our elaborate fastenings and compli- 
cated layers of inconveniences. Of the women 
of the Sandwich Islands, a traveller tells us : 
" Their loose dress gives grace as well as dignity 
to their movements, and whoever invented it 
for them deserves more credit than he has re- 
ceived. It is a little startling at first to see 
women walking about in what, to our perverted 
taste, looks like calico or black stuff night- 
gowns ; but the dress grows on you as you be- 
come accustomed to it. It lends itself readily to 
bright ornamentation ; it is eminently fit for the 



1 3 2 DRESS-REFORM. 

climate ; and a stately Hawaiian dame, marching 
through the street in black holaku, as the dress 
is called, with a long necklace, or le> of bright 
scarlet or brilliant yellow flowers, bare and un- 
trammelled feet, and flowing hair, compares very 
favorably with a high-heeled, wasp-waisted, ab- 
surdly bonneted white lady." Barbarous tribes 
allow still greater ease and freedom in their 
attire. 

But cross the boundaries of any civilized and 
Christian land, and you behold a race of gasping, 
nervous, and despairing women, who, with their 
compressed ribs, torpid lungs, hobbling feet, and 
bilious stomachs, evidently consider it their first 
duty to mortify the flesh, and to render them- 
selves and all humanity belonging to them as 
frail and uncomfortable as possible. If it be 
true that the New Testament and the Parisian 
fashion-book do necessarily go hand in hand, we 
might well hesitate before sending more mis- 
sionaries abroad to the happy heathen, endeav- 
oring to save their souls while making sure of 
ruining their bodies. 



DRESS-REFORM. 133 

But no dress of any time or of any land, be it 
Pagan or Christian, would answer the require- 
ments which we make to-day. Were all the 
costumes' ever devised spread out before us for 
our choice, it is doubtful if we should find our- 
selves well served with any. For the present 
was not comprehended in the past ; and our sis- 
ters abroad know little of the duties that we 
must meet or of the ideas which shape our lives. 

The world of the past appears to have asked 
itself only this question concerning woman, " Is 
she made to work, or to be looked at ? " " To 
work," replied the barbarous races ; and half clad, 
like the rest of her tribe, she then found little 
hindrance in her clothes. No dress-reform was 
needed for her. " To be looked at," said the 
Eastern nations, and they still drape her like a 
helpless doll. But where active, out-door life is 
forbidden, a dress suited to dawdling about di- 
vanned courts is all that is required. " Both to 
work, and to be looked at," say the civilized peo- 
ples of the West ; and here, wrapped in the loose 
folds of the harem, she strives to labor like her 



134 DRESS-REFORM. 

sisters of the forest. If the draperies have been 
somewhat lengthened and tightened, if the labors 
have become more multiform, and are carried on 
mostly in-doors, it makes the matter no better 
for her. In all these cases, her own claims and 
her own feelings are as utterly ignored as if she 
were a senseless stone. 

But a new clause is added to these hitherto 
approved replies. To-day, woman herself, edu- 
cated, enterprising, ambitious, has something to 
say in her own behalf. "Yes," she assents, 
" woman was made to work, to be looked at, but 
also to enjoy her own life ; living not only for 
others, but for herself, and most helpful when 
most true to her own needs." 

This is the new doctrine which she is preach- 
ing to our age. " I exist," she says, " not as wife, 
not as mother, not as teacher, but, first of all, as 
woman, with a right to existence for my own 
sake." 

Believing this, she makes a new demand upon 
her attire. She must still work in it, she must 
still look beautiful in it, but she must also be 



DRESS-REFORM. 135 

strong and comfortable and happy in it. It is 
in this requirement which she makes of her 
present dress that it fails her the most. She 
does manage to accomplish a deal of earnest 
work in it, though much less than she is capable 
of doing. The generations which she must 
please think she looks beautiful in it, since 
their eyes have become accustomed to its ugli- 
ness ; but she finds herself borne down by its 
weight, breathless from its compressions, and 
weary with buffeting its opposing folds. 

Of all nations of the earth, we suffer the most 
from the cruel tyrannies of dress. None need a 
serviceable costume so much as we, and none 
have one so bad. Indeed, American ladies are 
known abroad for two distinguishing traits 
(besides, possibly, their beauty and self-reliance), 
and these are their ill-health and their extrava- 
gant devotion to dress. The styles they affect, 
in their reckless disregard of hygienic rules, 
strike sturdy German and English matrons with 
dismay. The latter shiver to behold the gor- 
geous flimsiness in which such delicate travellers 



136 DRESS-REFORM. 

venture to clothe themselves ; and the travellers, 
in their turn, arch sharp eyebrows and endure 
twinges of " aromatic pain" whenever these 
broad-waisted, burly dames cross their vision, 
in stuffs of coarse woollen and colors too horrible 
to be borne. At home, our country-woman suf- 
fers the more because she is not content to be 
useless and indolent in all her fine array. Her 
energy, her intelligence in other matters, must 
exercise themselves within her house and with- 
out it. With strength impaired, she attempts to 
live the life of the busy worker in a dress that 
the merest idler would find burdensome and op- 
pressive. The result is a pain and a weariness 
that lead inevitably to discomfort and disease; 
but she has not yet learned that, while discomfort 
is a sin against herself, disease is a sin against 
God. 

The thoughtful, enlightened women of our 
time have begun to recognize these truths. But 
they find their pernicious dress imposed upon 
them as a part of the conventionality into which 
they are born ; and conventionality is a second 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 3 7 

nature, which they have been taught to respect 
far more than Nature at first hand. Indeed, of 
the latter they as yet know little. Some day, if 
they persevere in the path which they are now 
so bravely treading, they will grope their way 
back to God's original intent in regard to them. 
Just because their present dress is a part of this 
tyrannous second nature, do they find it so hard 
to get rid of it, even when they have declared 
that they cannot breathe, or walk, or work, or 
play, or be decently miserable in it. But that 
knowledge of the laws embodied in her physical 
being, which woman is acquiring to-day through 
her study of medicine, and through her forced 
inquiries into the novel and manifold sufferings 
she is beginning to experience, together with the 
new demands of a broader and more active life, 
lead her to bear with ever-increasing impatience 
the countless restrictions which her conven- 
tional dress imposes upon her. It may be faulty 
in other respects, it may shock every principle 
of art, it may demand a wanton expenditure of 
money and time for its purchase and care ; but 



1 3 8 DRESS-REFORM. 

these appear to her small evils compared with 
the discomfort and the disease to which it leads. 

Thus it has happened that, notwithstanding 
the many charges which could properly be 
brought against our prevailing attire, the lect- 
ures so far given in this course have concerned 
themselves almost wholly with its unhealthful- 
ness, — and rightly so. Nothing should over- 
shadow that defect, as nothing can atone for it. 

Though it be as perfect in outline and orna- 
ment as classic taste can make it, as simple and 
serviceable as the most energetic worker can 
desire, a costume has no business to exist, is, 
indeed, an embodied crime, if it deforms or weak- 
ens or tortures the body it pretends to serve. For 
that should be sacred : it is God's handiwork. 
He made it as he wished it to be ; capable, by 
wonderful mechanisms, of swift and easy motion ; 
shaped in contours which artists despair of re- 
producing ; and so responsive to our will, so 
varied in its capacities, so lightly moved from 
place to place by its own powers, that in its 
perfect state the soul which inhabits it is almost 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 39 

unconscious of its existence, and knows it only 
as a source of help and pleasure. 

A dress which prevents this human body from 
ever attaining its natural size and comeliness 
cannot, however, be simply unhealthful : it must, 
necessarily, be inartistic, since the highest as- 
piration of art is to copy and idealize Nature. 
What opposes Nature can never be really beau- 
tiful. And the dress of woman not only hides 
the form with which she has been endowed, 
ignoring it as far as possible, and rendering it as 
if it did not exist, but it shows it still greater 
disrespect by seeking to interfere with its or- 
dained growth and development. . For God's 
design, it substitutes the design of one of his 
creatures, — as if the work of the Great Archi- 
tect could be improved upon! — and strives to 
shape the body in an artificial mould. 

Our costumer does not say, " Here is this out- 
line of trunk and limbs, — let us, in draping it, 
destroy as little as possible the divine contours 
into which it grows ; " but she says, " Lo, the 
cages and casings which mine own hands have 



140 DRESS-REFORM. 

wrought! Put this body into them, compress 
it here, add to it there, till it present the like- 
ness of nothing in the heavens above, or in the 
earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. 
Behold it done ! This now is my admirable 
creation, — a woman after my own heart. Do 
you not admire her ? 

" What ! would you enlarge her casings where 
they cramp her heart, and curtail her draperies 
where they clog her feet? Then you despise 
the loveliness you are too blind to see. You 
have set up the clownish idol Comfort above 
Beauty ; and Beauty is the divinity we should 
adore. Go to, unregenerate heathen, who refuse 
to mingle in our worship ! We will have none 
of you ! Depart from our sanctuaries ! They 
who enter here swing censers for ever before the 
face of our goddess ; and with agonies of spirit 
and great mortification of the flesh do they bow 
down before our veiled, our corseted, our pan- 
niered divinity. Great is her name among the 
children of men." 

And we, the unregenerate heathen, who see 



DRESS-REFORM. 141 

not as they see, must needs retire into caves and 
dens, and waste places of the earth, and there, 
in the outer darkness, wail forth this defiant 
song : " The idol you worship is an impostor, a 
false god. We scorn to adore her. Lo, on the 
mountains, free as air, light-footed as the gazelle, 
roams the true goddess of immortal Beauty ! 
Afar off we behold her as she moves. Her 
brow is bared to the sweet dews of the morn- 
ing, and unfading sunshine follows where she 
treads.' 

But the song breaks and quavers, and its 
feeble echoes threaten to die away upon the hill- 
tops ; while ever upward float full paeans from 
the crowded idolaters beneath. 

Probably no obstacle stand more in the way 
of a sensible dress-reform, such as health and 
comfort imperatively demand, than the prevail- 
ing notion that any such change must necessarily 
be hideous, and an offence to the eyes. As if 
Beauty refused to ally herself with Health and 
Convenience ; and as if they were not the trinity 
in dress which ought never to be separated! 



142 DRESS-REFORM. 

Indeed, we should pray for a radical change in 
our attire, if for no other reason than because 
we believe in beauty. Is not the latter repeat- 
edly outraged in every essential of our present 
garb ? 

We hear much from the opponents of such 
reform concerning the grace of flowing lines ; 
and short skirts they refuse to tolerate, because 
an important feature of attractive raiment would 
thus be destroyed. But look at our modern 
robe. Where be the flowing lines in the flounces, 
the ruffles, the puffs, the over-skirts, and the 
bunchings at the waist, which a friend, for lack 
of a more definite term, has called the great 
hereafter ? Not a single straight sweeping curve 
from belt to hem ; but a terraced, balconied, 
Chinese pagoda, with gingerbread ornaments 
confusing its architecture, and meaningless pen- 
dants swinging from every support. Can any 
plain, short skirt be half so bad as that ? 

If it be true that flowing lines are so excellent 
a thing, why should they not start from the 
shoulders, after the manner of the Greek and 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 43 

the Hawaiian dress, and thus secure a longer, 
more undulating curve for the falling raiment ? 
Or, if that may not be, why not borrow a fashion 
from the elder Napoleon's court, and extend 
these lines by terminating the waist just under 
the arms ? Short bodices and long, straight 
skirts, scant and plain, did not prevent the 
ladies of the First Empire, Josephine, Hortense, 
and Madame Recamier, from making themselves 
fascinating to all beholders ; and in that attire 
Madame de Stael did her deep thinking at 
Coppet. Health would surely be the gainer by 
such a change ; for whereas now belt and bias 
tighten around the loose lower ribs and the un- 
protected stomach, which have no power to resist 
the outward pressure, then the firm upper ribs 
would be the parts compressed, and they would 
stand like a wall of defence around the vital 
organs within. 

But the fashion of to-day will not purchase 
her vaunted beauties at such a sacrifice. Flow- 
ing draperies, admirable as they are, must never 
be obtained at the expense of the long, tight 



144 DRESS-REFORM. 

waist which she takes such infinite pains to 
mould. That shall survive, if all else perishes. 
" Lengthen your skirts, by all means," she says, 
— "the floor is yours, — but never encroach 
upon the bodice above. I care not if that be the 
most pernicious feature of the whole attire : it is 
the one to which I shall most desperately cling." 

If girding the body to the closest outline of 
the form over the region between the ribs and 
the hips, and there alone, is to remain the one 
essential accompaniment of a full-dress costume, 
might we not, at least, have a fixed standard of 
size for the waist, so that only those who tran- 
scend certain bounds may feel compelled to di- 
minish themselves ? As it is, no woman, how- 
ever small, is small enough. Pinching appears 
to be indispensable. Nature is never allowed to 
be right as she is. 

Not only, then, because those who plead for 
the retention of woman's present habiliments 
dodge the great facts of life, and, while prating 
of the lovely sheen of trailing satins in my 
lady's drawing-room, forget the physical miseries 



DRESS-REFORM. 145 

and inefficiencies of their sex, — of mothers, 
housekeepers, and workwomen, — must we dis- 
sent from their views, but because, in pleading 
for a fancied beauty such as they see around 
them, they delay the advent of that higher 
beauty which must always be consonant with 
God's laws, and which alone the true artist 
would recognize. 

Those who advocate a real and enduring dress- 
reform do so not only for the sake of health, 
but because they cannot forget, through blind 
adoration of prevailing deformities, in what the 
true harmonies of form and color consist. One 
whose life, as an artist, has been .given to the 
study of beauty's laws, arraigns our present 
dress for "its inconsistency with the just pro- 
portions of the human figure ; for its prevention 
of muscular freedom, and consequent falsity to 
grace and beauty ; for its excessive ornamenta- 
tion, and its introduction of senseless and glar- 
ing deformities, which are disgraceful to the 
wearer, demoralizing to the community, and an 
outrage to good taste and common sense." This 
7 J 



146 DRESS-REFORM. 

is the dress which it is claimed we cannot 
change to-day without destroying all the love- 
liness of female apparel : a dress which so clothes 
the feet that graceful walking is impossible, and 
substitutes a hobbling limp in place of that firm 
and noble carriage which denotes the queen, 

— incedit regina ; which prevents the arms from 
being raised above the head, and keeps them 
skewered feebly to the side ; which obliterates 
curve of outline and sweep of fold by meaning- 
less and redundant trimming ; which exaggerates 
the bust, humps the hips, pinches the waist, and 
in every way tends to destroy freedom of motion 
and symmetry of form. 

Where so many enormities exist, one would 
think that any departure must be for the better. 
But, despite the contrary notion which prevails, 
those who are seeking to reconstruct our pres- 
ent dress esteem the beautiful in personal attire 

— whether in the attire of men or of women — 
as too important an element to be left to the 
evolution of chance. The artist whose words I 
have just quoted, and who is herself a member 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 47 

of that association of ladies in whose behalf I 
now address you, willingly yields to physiology 
and hygiene the primal place in the suggestion 
of remedies for these evils ; but she does not 
forget that "art insists on the recognition of 
good taste in the construction of dress, not only 
in excellence of material, in grace of contour, and 
in harmony of color, but in perfect adaptation 
to the conditions and necessities of life, claiming 
that no dress-reform can be speedy, effective, or 
permanent which ignores the inherent instinct 
of beauty, no scheme of amendment successful 
where both beauty and utility do not act in har- 
monious combination." 

It is because we believe in the picturesque, 
and that no human being has a right to ignore 
it even in clothes, that we cannot admire the 
costume which woman adopts to-day. And, were 
it entirely satisfactory in this respect, we should 
then feel like remonstrating against that total 
disregard of beauty which is shown in the dress 
of the other sex. It is often asserted that they 
who preach dress-reform for women desire merely 



148 DRESS-REFORM. 

that they shall dress like men. Heaven forbid ! 
is our response. 

If utility were the only thing to be considered, 
we might admit that the dress of men is as 
nearly perfect as it can be made. But it takes 
no cognizance of those finer needs, of that thirst 
for beauty for beauty's sake, which God has im- 
planted in our being, and which he has taken 
such infinite pains to gratify. To this end has 
he not filled the heavens above us with ever shift- 
ing contrasts and harmonies of color, painted the 
sunrise and the sunset with gold and vermilion, 
bathed the zenith in softest azure, and spanned 
the pearly cloud-mists with shaded arches of 
glowing light ? Has he not decked the earth 
beneath with a thousand charming hues, given to 
each flower-petal its own fresh tints and dainty 
crimpings, mottled every insect's wing with drops 
of color, and made the plumage of every bird 
contribute to that feast of beauty which he has 
spread before our delighted eyes? In such a 
world of varied and varying loveliness, who shall 
say that a Quaker garb, or any dull, unchanging 



DRESS-REFORM, 149 

uniformity of dress, is in accordance with the 
divine will ? It is a narrow nature that can hold 
such abnegations to be right and becoming. 

The costume which men have chosen for all* 
occasions is an insult to woman's aesthetic tastes. 
By what privilege, we ask, do they ignore their 
bounden allegiance to art, and daily afflict our 
sense of the graces of form and charms of color 
by the attire they adopt ? Have not our eyes 
rights in this matter as well as theirs ? If we 
have thus far sacrificed every thing to beauty, as 
we understood it, they have to-day sacrificed 
every thing to comfort. While we seek to re- 
treat from our one extreme, let them retreat 
from theirs. 

Who that ever sits in the gallery of a crowded 
ball-room, looking down on the whirling dancers 
below, is not struck with the ridiculous incon- 
gruity in their dress, as they glide in close 
couples over the floor ? The ladies, huge and 
cylindrical in masses of vaporous tulle, appear 
smiling and radiant in jewels and garlands and 
festive array ; while the poor little men, black as 



150 DRESS-REFORM. 

ebony and straight as clothes-pins, pirouette in 
bold relief against the spinning cylinders of tulle, 
clinging to their unsubstantial edges with an 
anxious look, as if they felt that at any moment 
a sudden gust might puff them off into the air, 
or drift them out beyond their bearings. Did we 
not know the fashions of our modern world, we 
should suppose that a wedding procession had 
just broken into a funeral train, and whirled off 
the mourners to dance a jig. And, judging by 
their faces, the mourners never forget the bier 
left halting outside, even when skipping to the 
sound of the timbrel and lute in the merciless 
grasp of their captors. But, unlike clothes- 
pins, the men are not wooden-headed ; for, when 
the music strikes up a quadrille, they show mar- 
vellous dexterity in piloting themselves through 
the vaporous lanes and around their huge part- 
ners ; and, even in the swift interlacing of the 
grand-right-and-left, no one of them treads on 
the lowest, outlying ruffle of the tarlatan mists 
through which they pick their way. When the 
music stops with a long scrape from the violin, 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 5 1 

they are always found bowing in their right 
places, though they have had to circumnavigate 
great circles in their devious voyage, to look out 
for shoals and quicksands on every side, and to 
tack often in the face of gusty winds and through 
a chopped sea. 

The masculine half of humanity do well to 
wear about their work a compact, simple, and ser- 
viceable dress ; but they have no excuse for in- 
truding it upon elegant, social assemblies, and 
thus robbing them of half their picturesque 
charm. If men enter such festive scenes, they 
should don a wedding garment. Nature has not 
rendered it impossible for them to assume those 
splendors of the toilet which they are so fond of 
in us. Once they made themselves magnificent 
with scarlet velvets slashed with gold, with em- 
broidered ruffs, flashing knee-buckles, and long, 
powdered hair. Why does not a full-dress occa- 
sion demand this of them to-day, as rigorously as 
it does the trains, the laces, the coiffures of our 
sex ? If it be essential to the brilliancy of the 
drawing-room that the fall -of silken draperies 



1 5 2 DRESS-REFORM. 

shall reveal their lights and shadows under the 
blaze of chandeliers, — why, the more of them 
the better. And if some people must agonize as 
lay-figures for the sake of others' eyes, let the 
suffering be equally divided. We will bear our 
half, let the men bear theirs ! Though masculine 
coat-tails cannot offer us the sweep and shimmer 
of floating drapery, by trailing on the floor as we 
trail our robes, their wearers,* on state occasions 
at least, might don the glittering and gorgeous 
apparel in which they were wont of old to present 
themselves at the courts of queens, and even in 
the halls of our provincial assemblies. 

Our young friend Antinoiis is a JQy to behold, 
even now, with his classic head rising from a 
cast-iron shirt collar, and his erect and comely 
form encased in straight, black pantaloons and 
a plain frock-coat ; but what would he not be- 
come in our eyes, could we behold a Tyrolese 
hat, with a soaring ostrich-feather, shading his 
brow, and his face smiling a welcome over lace 
shirt-frills, and a doublet buttoned with dia- 
monds, like that worn by Prince Esterhazy? 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 53 

But to-day all the picture-making falls to us. 
We are never supposed to be observers. Men 
inform us that woman's divine mission is to 
make herself beautiful ; and we, believing all 
that they tell us, set about adorning ourselves 
within an inch of our lives, and exist that we 
may be looked at. Men are handsomer to us 
than women, — or, at least, Nature meant that 
they should be : why ought they not, then, to 
make the most of themselves, in like manner, for 
our edification ? We must go to the opera and 
the theatre if we would behold man adorned 
with the perfection of clothes ; for there his 
warbling and strutting are done in the varied 
and brilliant costumes which other less prosaic 
times and other less prosaic lands have allowed 
him to wear. 

In every-day life, Claribel's peach-bloom cheeks 
and lustrous eyes glow and sparkle the more 
under her veil of gossamer ; bright roses wreathe 
her brow from under her hat ; in wavy folds of 
soft silk she moves before her admirers ; and 
thus, however useless she may otherwise be, she 



154 DRESS-REFORM. 

adds a new glory and a diviner beauty to the 
earth she treads. But unless Antinotis should 
become stage-struck, and take to the highway on 
the boards, in the character of an Italian bandit, 
or simper as a page in mock drawing-rooms, I 
shall never see him in the Tyrolese hat and the 
satin doublet, and he must always appear before 
me in his second best. 

Art obstinately refuses to accommodate herself 
to man's modern attire. Painters and sculptors 
keep it out of their pictures and their marbles, 
and poetry will not recognize it. Were I to write 
a " Dream of Fair Men," after the manner of Ten- 
nyson's "Dream of Fair Women," and take my 
subjects from the jeunesse dorte we see around 
us, I should find myself put to it to introduce 
graceful references to their cravats, dress-coats, 
pantaloons, and tall hats, so as to make them 
seem either poetic or inspiriting. The only 
course possible, if I did not wish to rob my 
heroes of all claims to divinity, would be to 
ignore their garments altogether. Yet togas, 
mantles, cloaks, knee-buckles, sandals, cocked 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 5 5 

hats — these accessories of an elder time — were 
available in verse. You remember the old poet 
Herrick's enthusiastic celebrations of his Julias 
clothes, — the very same she would wear to-day ; 
and Sir John Suckling says of some one of his 
court beauties, — - 

" Her feet beneath her petticoat 
Like little mice stole in and out, 
As if they feared the light." 

So that even petticoats are not alien to song ; 
but could " His boots beneath his pantaloons " in 
any way get admittance to an immortal poem ? 

Thus men have had their dress-reform, of a 
kind we will not emulate. In casting aside their 
inconvenient fineries, relics of the days when 
gentlemen were more ornamental than useful, 
and adopting a suit fitted for business and work, 
they have forsworn all richness and variety of 
color and ornament. If women's dress-reform 
were to mean this, we might well dread the sober 
look which the world would wear. But beauty 
must be incorporated into our remodelled gar- 
ments, so far as it interferes with nothing more 



1 56 DRESS-REFORM. 

important to retain ; only let us be sure that it is 
beauty, and not hideousness. The eternal prin- 
ciples of taste and fitness should be our guides, 
rather than the changing whims of the mode. 
Let us also prize the attraction of a strong, well- 
developed physique as greater than any artificial 
charm that can be added to it, and devise only 
that apparelling which is consistent with perfect 
health. And, while we do this, let us ask that 
men respect our rights as beauty-loving creatures 
in the same way that we respect theirs. 

It is surely the duty of all human beings to 
make themselves both useful and beautiful to 
the extent of their powers ; and the obligation 
to do this rests equally upon the two sexes. But 
society proceeds on the theory that man has only 
to be useful, and woman to be beautiful ; and that 
thus their several duties will be well performed. 
This would be a very comfortable assumption for 
us, if it were true ; but, somehow, a deal of hard 
drudgery happens to fall to our lot, which no one 
thinks it his duty to appropriate for the sake of 
enabling us to fulfil our appointed mission. The 



DRESS-REFORM. 157 

work we must do ; but we must be as beautiful as 
possible while doing it. Though forced to play 
the r61e of the bee, we are never to forget that 
of the butterfly. So, striving to meet such oppos- 
ing requirements, we make, of our every-day life 
a continuous, shabby pageant, which brings lit- 
tle pleasure to others or profit to ourselves. We 
might endeavor to provide the entire aesthetic 
entertainment demanded by the race, if that 
were all that were required ; but to work and to 
play at the same time, and in the same trouble- 
some fineries, with never so much as a sorry 
little farce of the same sort acted for us in 
return, is to make a dreary failure of the whole. 

It is time to have done with such folly. Let 
us work when we work, and play when we play ; 
and let us seek to do both thoroughly and well. 
Let us accept the truth that we all have daily 
tasks, — women as well as men ; and let us go 
to them in the raiment they demand, — raiment 
strong, warm, cleanly, comfortable ; made, too, 
with all possible regard to beauty, but with that 
quality kept wholly subordinate and subservient 



1 5 8 DRESS-REFORM. 

to the capacity for untrammelled action. Then 
neither the labor nor the laborer will suffer from 
the dress. 

But, work-time over, we may fling utility to 
the winds, and feed our senses with the sweet 
satisfactions of beauty and grace. If recreation 
offers, we will take down our fine feathers from 
their upper shelves, and, sparing no braveries of 
color or shape which art suggests and health 
approves, we will all combine to form a partner- 
ship for elegant and elevating enjoyment. 

There is no reason why the rich and orna- 
mented garments meet for holiday occasions 
should not conduce also to comfort and health. 
But were it otherwise, and could the picturesque 
element in our apparel be retained only as it was 
embodied in the cumbrous habiliments of the 
past, we should say that even then it would be 
our duty to make some provision for its recog- 
nition. Rather than suffer humanity to drape 
itself continually in dingy hues, with no remem- 
brance of the rich, warm tints, the jewelled radi- 
ance, and the soft sheen of light and shadow 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 5 9 

which once made courtly robes resplendent, and 
which the old painters — such as Rubens and 
Titian — loved so well, we should then all agree, 
with heroic devotion, that for a limited time, and 
after stated intervals of ease, we would assemble 
together and make ourselves splendid and mis- 
erable for the general good. If each bore his 
part bravely, and it was fair play, no one would 
be readier than our dress-reformers to take their 
chances of surviving with the rest. But they 
would insist on conditions, and would tolerate 
no unnecessary risks. There must be short ses- 
sions, seasonable hours, spacious, well-warmed, 
well-ventilated rooms, and no late suppers to 
tempt them to their death. That none of the 
effects might be wasted, long mirrors should 
panel the walls, and a floor smooth and polished 
repeat the gorgeous scene, as still waters reflect 
meadow trees in October. Over this glare sur- 
face there would be careful hobbling of many 
guests in high-heeled, sharp-toed slippers ; and, 
when a space was cleared for action, brocaded 
trains should sweep along before admiring eyes, 



160 DRESS-REFORM. 

or whisk about as adroitly as if they belonged to 
a stage actress who had studied all branches 
of her profession. Lest any one might become 
hopelessly involved in their entangling folds, a 
page should be at hand to reef them when they 
became unmanageable. Close calculation before- 
hand would have determined just how much 
perambulating and attitudinizing ought reason- 
ably to be expected of each contributor; and, 
having done our duty, we should be free to retire 
to side stations and survey the other performers. 
There, in glittering ranks, we should plume the 
feathers stolen for us from African deserts, 
shake out wide laces from shivering arms, exalt 
huge pyramids of powdered locks as if they were 
horns of the wicked, and stir the deep-hearted, 
scintillating jewels bound about our brows and 
the clinking chains upon our wrists. In such 
trappings, of course we should feel like the veri- 
est puppets, mere inconsequential fragments of 
the whole combination ; but, if it were possible 
to vivify and inform so much buckram, paste, 
and dead material, we should do it. Over broad, 



DRESS-REFORM. l6l 

wired ruffs we would smile radiantly at the vel- 
vet coats, the long silk doublets, the drooping 
frills, and the periwigs of the gallant courtiers 
before us, and they should smile radiantly in 
return ; and thus the play would be well sus- 
tained. Having stipulated that the show should 
terminate at a fixed hour, we could bear our part 
without flinching. That hour arriving, a clock- 
stroke would send us as swiftly to the plain, 
easy apparel of our daily life, as it sent Cin- 
derella from a royal feast to her kitchen and 
cold ashes. 

Our hungry senses would have had a carnival 
of color and movement, of courtly grace and 
beaming compliment, managed according to the 
most approved co-operative principles, where 
each one who shared the profits had contributed 
his proportion of the risks. It would have been 
in premeditated defiance of the laws of health ; 
but, considering the cause at stake, Hygeia 
might surely pardon us for our indulgence, pro- 
vided we paid penance at her shrine for months 
after in long-sleeved, high-necked flannels, swing- 



1 62 DRESS-REFORM. 

ing our censers with fur-lined mittens, in strict 
conformity to calisthenic teaching, and pacing 
before her altars in sombre walking-suits and 
the best of Miller's broad-soled boots- 
Worshippers of Health though we be, who 
shall say that we have no regard for Beauty, 
when, if all friends forsook her, we would lay 
such homage at her feet ? But she will never 
exact of us this last measure of devotion. She 
prefers to leave behind her the stilted magnifi- 
cence of the past, and to mingle with us in our 
daily toil and daily pleasures. Her touch shall 
hereafter brighten the coarse robe of the work- 
woman, as well as the mantle of the queen ; and, 
when she summons us to her dainty banquets, 
we shall find Simplicity and Health among her 
guests. 

While we bewail the imperfections of clothes, 
as now worn by men and 'women, we do not 
sorrow as those without hope. Already indi- 
cations appear that man's attire has reached 
its acme of ugliness, and that the reaction 
towards adornment and color has begun. If the 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 63 

feather he sticks in his new hat-band is a very 
tiny one, and worn with a half-shamed air, it is 
still there, a veritable bit of color and grace, and 
useful for nothing else. It is but a line of pip- 
ing, but it carries a streak of scarlet through the 
gray uniformity of his winter riding-coat ; and 
the gay posy pinned into his button-hole is 
another step towards the happy mean which 
lies between mere comfort on the one hand and 
mere beauty on the other. 

And, looking at the general tendency of the 
late fashions devised for women, the prospect 
seems equally encouraging for them. If a wan- 
ton luxuriance of trimming runs riot over ham- 
pering train and torturing bodice, there is likewise 
provision for higher and purer tastes, and the 
severe finds a place beside the ornate. Simplic- 
ity of adornment, unbroken lines, looseness at 
the waist if you will, — what more can you hope 
for to-day ? Mantua-makers tell us that the late 
Parisian fashion-plates retain straight redingotes 
for women, and even herald the return of short 
skirts ; and that all these may be plain to a 



164 DRESS-REFORM. 

degree. Beneath such an exterior, what hinders 
you from being as comfortable as you can ever 
be under the old regime of skirts and bodices ? 
Ungird your waistbands, and put on your sus- 
penders : who shall be the wiser ? 

Nor would we forget the substantial gains of 
the past ten years. Waterproof cloaks and rub- 
ber boots have been vouchsafed us, in recogni- 
tion of the fact that women have acquired 
regular occupations outside their homes, and 
must go abroad in rainy weather as well as in 
fair. Corsets, bad as they are, are no longer 
laced with the aid of the bedpost, nor worn at 
night. Low necks and short sleeves are seldom 
displayed at" balls and parties ; and let us believe 
that, for the sake of common decency, they will 
rarely be seen there again. A few years ago we 
should have cited close coat-sleeves, comfortable 
boots, short walking-dresses, and hats in lieu of 
bonnets, as further proofs that the world of fash- 
ion was swinging steadily towards the millen- 
nium. But, alas ! since then we have seemed to 
be returning towards chaos and old night ; for 






DRESS-REFORM. 1 65 

flowing sleeves, high-heeled boots, and trailing 
skirts for the street have come in again, and, 
however brief their reign, they have shown us 
that women are as ready as ever to freeze their 
arms, to torture and deform their feet, and to sit 
enveloped in breadths of drapery which have 
swept the public sidewalks for a mile. The 
worse for the credit of women and the credit of 
fashion ! It teaches us to put no faith in any 
fair promises that the fickle goddess may make. 
If to-day she offers us plain and sensible habili- 
ments, to-morrow she will lead us a terrible life 
again, with her flu tings and flouncings. She is 
not converted to the side of dress-reform, only 
trying her hand at oddities. And, if we should 
call in her aid to help along our thoughtful work, 
she would jilt us just as it was well under way. 
Could we create the dress of which we dream, 
and, securing Mme. Demorest and the fashion 
magazines, astonish the world with a coup d'ttat 
which should make women appear for once clad 
like reasonable beings, by what force could we 
compel them to retain this mode longer than the 



1 66 DRESS-REFORM. 

season which produced it ? Laws, to endure in 
a republic, must be approved by the people who 
submit to them. If the majority of its wearers 
see no other reason for the adoption of a cos- 
tume than that they find it in their fashion- 
books, it will be abandoned when another 
supersedes it there. 

Here is the obstacle which is to be overcome, 
if we would look for any effectual and enduring 
dress-reform among the women of to-day, such 
as the good of our American society now de- 
mands. It cannot be imposed upon any one : 
its wearers must desire it for themselves. They 
must desire it, moreover, for reasons which shall 
render it necessary to retain it as a permanency. 

These reasons will be, first, a respect for their 
physical natures, and an enlightened belief that 
their own bodily weakness and inefficiency are 
chiefly due to the injurious effects of wearing the 
present dress. The second reason will be an 
artistic perception of what true beauty is, and a 
desire to conform to it, independently of any ar- 
bitrary rules of taste. In short, they must learn 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 67 

Nature's laws, and respect them. The few who 
have done so hitherto have been powerless to 
arouse the many. Who shall become to her sis- 
ters the valiant and persuasive apostle of the di- 
vinity of the body ? Who shall reveal to them 
the eternal harmonies of form and color, so that 
they shall listen, and be ready to obey ? 

That desirable improvement in the dress both 
of women and men which art enjoins will surely 
come in time, if we can wait patiently for it. 
Such a general knowledge of beauty's laws, and 
such a deference to their behests as it implies, 
must be a slow growth ; for it is nothing short 
of the enlightenment of the whole people as to 
what constitutes grace of form, harmony of color, 
and adaptability to conditions of life. The im- 
portance of this art-education, too long ignored 
and despised in our Puritan New World commu- 
nities, has been at length recognized by our pub- 
lic authorities in such a manner that it cannot 
fail to be well provided for hereafter. With 
drawing taught in every one of our public 
schools, with the establishment of schools of 



1 68 DRESS-REFORM. 

design for mechanics in our principal cities, and 
free lectures delivered upon the elements of 
beauty, and with the opening of museums of 
painting and statuary to cultivate the taste of all 
observers, we must find hereafter not only a per- 
ceptible improvement in our manufactured arti- 
cles of household use, but also in the outlines 
and the details of our daily dress. 

And we see further hope in the fact that as 
the making of our garments tends to pass more 
and more into the hands of professional work- 
women, so the designing of them will, in conse- 
quence, fall to persons trained for such tasks. 
Woman's time is fast becoming valuable to her 
for other labors than the devising at home of all 
the articles that she wears ; and she now seeks 
to find them ready-made for her use, as man 
finds his apparel. The supply of finished 
dresses, and underclothing of all descriptions, in 
our stores, is a feature of the past five years, 
and is destined to work a revolution not only in 
woman's work but in woman's appearance. It 
may, perhaps, tend to greater sameness of attire, 



DRESS-REEORAf. 1 69 

but it must tend also to better taste, since indi- 
vidual ignorance will not be forced to embody 
and illustrate itself in every article which it 
wears. But no influence can ever destroy the 
peculiar character which each one confers upon 
her attire, or prevent a revelation of that deli- 
cate and cultured taste which shows itself in 
the tie of a neck-ribbon and the arrangement of 
the simplest details. 

When, by such means, true beauty becomes 
familiar, it will be understood ; and then it will 
work itself out into such a readjustment of the 
essential outlines of our dress as may adapt 
them to the untrammelled growth and motion 
of the human figure, whose native grace it will 
have learned to revere. Thus, slowly but surely, 
will Art take to herself the right to shape and 
adorn the material with which we are clothed. 

We have reason to believe that instruction as 
to what constitutes a healthful and serviceable 
costume will be more speedy, and its beneficial 
results more immediate. A sad experience of 
physical ailments will lead women more and 
8 



170 DRESS-REFORM. 

more to an inquiry concerning the causes of 
disease ; physicians of their own sex will be able 
and ready to enlighten them as to the tendency 
of fashions which are now heedlessly adopted ; 
and the liberal education which they will here- 
after receive at school must result in an intelli- 
gent comprehension of Nature's laws. They 
will then desire such a reform as has been advo- 
cated, not because it has become, or can become, 
suddenly fashionable, but because they shrink 
from subjecting themselves again to ligatures 
and burdens which can only weaken and op- 
press. 

In this work we ought to have men for allies 
instead of opponents ; for they have themselves 
struggled out of the same wilderness where 
we are now wandering. And could they be 
made to realize the daily and hourly discom- 
fort inflicted by the clothes they admire so 
much, could they know what hindrances these 
are to us, and what time and thought we spend 
upon them, they would cease to ridicule any at- 
tempt at dress-reform, and would rather strive to 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 7 1 

lend it all possible aid and encouragement. But 
many of them appear amazed that any thing has 
been found wrong with the drapery in which 
lovely woman is enshrined ; while others, firmly 
believing that in order to make woman healthy 
in body it is absolutely necessary to make her 
hideous in apparel, hold it advisable for their 
sisters to continue to commit slow suicide in the 
service of Art. Though they positively declined 
to do this themselves, when they fashioned their 
present attire, they are yet ready, like Artemas 
Ward, to sacrifice all their female relatives in 
that cause. 

Were I an emperor, absolute as any Shah, it 
would be my sovereign pleasure to decree that 
the men of my kingdom should wear women's 
clothes for a day, and that the women should 
wear those of the men. For one day only. 
It would not be long before something would 
be done ; for the close of that memorable time 
would behold a race of groaning athletes, giving 
thanks for their escape from the strange bondage 
and drawing great breaths of deliverance, while 



172 DRESS-REFORM. 

the wailing of the women at their return to the 
old fetters would be heart-rending to hear. Then 
the nation would pause from its consideration 
of lesser evils, and would set at work in good 
earnest to eradicate this. 

But since we can hope for no such aid and 
comfort, upon what shall we rely ? While the 
sure growth of general intelligence, of which I 
have spoken, must tend to better fashions, the 
demands of business, now that women have 
gone from the home to the workshop and the 
counter, will force them in time so to attire 
themselves as not to impair the market value of 
their labors. 

And only such agencies will prove effective 
in producing greater economy in dress. When 
woman learns the value of money by laboring di- 
rectly for it, or when she is informed beforehand 
of the precise amount of her yearly supplies and 
feels bound to apportion them according to her 
needs, when she has opportunities offered her 
for a nobler competition with her associates than 
that to which she is now restricted, and which 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 73 

consists in mere personal display, and when, by- 
understanding and respecting Nature, she is led 
to assign to conventionalism a secondary place, 
she will then, doubtless, limit her expenditures 
to her means, and will employ her powers in 
more profitable toil than in fashioning an end- 
less variety of hideous and cruel garments 
wherewith to bedeck and torture her suffering 
frame. 

Although the varied influences now at work 
in the society around us must inevitably result, 
sooner or later, in a sensible reconstruction of 
dress, we should do our utmost to make the 
transition as speedy as possible, in order that 
our sisters may be spared all needless suffering 
and inefficiency. Much can be done by the 
direct appeals of those who are zealous in this 
cause to those who are not, by the mighty force 
of example, in rendering pernicious fashions un- 
popular, and in holding to those which are good ; 
and, especially, by the instruction of the young 
women of our schools in the inflexible laws of 
their being, concerning which they are now so 



174 DRESS-REFORM. 

lamentably ignorant, and a knowledge of which 
is so essential to the physical well-being of them- 
selves, their families, and remote posterity. 

Of all the seed that can be scattered by* the 
wayside, none will bear such promise of fruit as 
that which shall fall upon young minds. It is 
with the girls that this reformation must begin, 
if it is to prove effectual. We older women, and 
all like us, however strong and well we may 
think ourselves, are, at the best, little better 
than physical wrecks, capable of repairs more or 
less thorough, but still hopelessly damaged by the 
ignorance of ourselves and of our time. What 
we might have been in our physiques, had we 
been properly trained and clothed from child- 
hood, we can never know. But the girls of to- 
day should be saved before they have learned to 
wear the woman's dress, with its countless abom- 
inations, that they may be enabled to grow up 
untrammelled, vigorous, and happy, to show the 
world a nobler womanhood and a nobler race of 
children than our country offers now. Practical 
teaching of this sort the pupils of our schools 



DRESS-REFORM. 175 

seem glad to hear and enthusiastic to follow. 
In large cities its need is imperative. 

And just now it is especially important, not 
only to the physical but to the mental well-being 
of our girls and women, that some thorough 
dress-reform should be effected. It is the bodily 
weakness, resulting so largely from their attire, 
which has become the chief argument for dwarf- 
ing and restraining their intellectual growth. 

Admitting, as we must, that the undoubted 
ill-health of our countrywomen is a national 
injury and a national disgrace, we should feel 
called upon as patriotic citizens and as philan- 
thropists to do every thing in our power to re- 
move the causes which induce it. No one habit 
of American life can be held responsible for 
it ; the agencies are manifold which convert so 
many of our vigorous girls into suffering inva- 
lids before they have fairly grown into women : 
but, if there be one agency worthy to be em- 
phasized above all others, I believe it to be our 
present pernicious style of dress. A physician 
who could attribute the sad decay of our young 



176 DRESS-REFORM. 

women to excessive and continuous study, must 
be ignorant of very much of what constitutes 
the daily life of those of whom he speaks ; and 
I protest against that explanation of the prevail- 
ing invalidism which has lately been given, and 
which is so eagerly caught at and proclaimed by 
those who are at heart opposed to every belief 
which tends to develop woman into something 
more than a merely physical being, valuable to 
society not for her own sake, but only because 
she is the mother of an order of beings superior 
to herself. The fact that girls, upon whose 
muscular and nervous systems such a peculiar 
strain is to come in their after-lives, are suffered 
to do nothing in youth which shall strengthen 
those muscles and tone those nerves ; that 
half-grown limbs, unfilled lungs, sluggish livers, 
pinched stomachs, and distorted wombs are 
carefully cultivated by the corsets and tight 
waists in which we encase their developing 
bodies ; and that sedentary habits, bad air, and 
poor appetites are given them as a daily portion 
when we keep them in-doors and seek to train 



DRESS-REFORM. 1 77 

them into presentable young ladies, — argues 
nothing against the native endurance of their 
physical frames, but rather tends to show that 
there must be an extraordinary amount of vitality 
and recuperative power in what refuses so obsti- 
nately to be destroyed. It is a ludicrous mis- 
take to suppose that a few sporadic cases of 
injudicious study in the few female colleges 
of the land can be held accountable for the 
general ill-health of our women. Had any mas- 
culine physician who entertains that idea ever 
made a study of the full feminine regalia in 
which his delicate patients sit enveloped when 
they come to consult his professional skill, he 
would have found, in chilled and encumbered 
limbs, dragging skirts, overheated abdomen, 
compressed waist, and hot and burdened head, 
a better explanation of that state of things which 
he and all well-wishers of our country and our 
race must lament. It is not that boys and girls 
are trained too much alike mentally, but that 
they are trained too much unlike physically, which 
works the harm. Not too much knowledge of 
8* L 



178 DRESS-REFORM, 



astronomy and mathematics, but too little knowl 
edge of the laws of life, is what proves fatal to 
our young women. The remedy for their weak- 
ness is to be sought, not by enfeebling the mind 
till mind and body correspond, but by strength- 
ening the body, through intelligent obedience 
to its laws, so that mind and body can both 
attain their perfect stature. 

When the instruction so much needed on vital 
matters is furnished to our girls by their parents 
and teachers, they will abandon for ever the 
style of apparel which now works such disas- 
trous results ; and then, with proper clothing 
and proper training, they will be enabled to 
grow up, not into those strange, unfeminized 
beings, ashamed of their sex, of whom some 
writers morbidly dream, but into strong-bodied, 
strong-limbed, clear-headed, warm-hearted, rosy, 
happy women, proud of their womanhood, sur- 
rounded by husband and children, if they prefer 
a domestic life, but held in equal honor and 
esteem, if, for any reasons which may seem to 
them good, they choose to devote themselves, 






DRESS-REFORM. 1 79 

with self-reliant energies, to other labors for 
their race. 

If any lady has become convinced of a radical 
and pernicious error in the construction of her 
dress, and desires to reform it altogether, let 
her not wait till a costume which is both health- 
ful and elegant shall spring into being, to serve 
as a model. Individual thought and effort must 
be expended, if individual wants are to be met. 
No regulation-suit can be offered which would 
prove acceptable to all. What one finds agree- 
able in material and make, another is sure she 
could not tolerate. Therefore each one will 
need to work out her own physical salvation 
with patience and devotion. But the result will 
justify her pains. 

In the first place, she must divest herself of 
the common notion that a dress-reform necessa- 
rily and primarily means a marked change in 
the outer garment, — the "dress," technically so 
called, — and in that alone. The under-garments 
are the chief offenders ; and it is far more im- 
portant that they should be remodelled than 



180 DRESS-REFORM, 

that any change should be made in the external 
covering. 

Indeed, there is no necessity for any dress- 
reformer to play the role of a martyr by appear- 
ing in a singular and conspicuous garb, unless 
she chooses to do so. Bring me your latest fash- 
ionable costumes, — the dresses just fresh from 
Paris, made by Worth himself, if you will, — and 
I will pick one from among them beneath which 
it shall be possible to dress a woman in almost 
perfect conformity to the laws of health. Not 
one binding shall be needed at the waist. 

And if any have succeeded in reconstructing 
their clothing so as to render it in harmony 
with hygienic and aesthetic laws, they should 
endeavor to benefit others by offering practical 
suggestions, and by extending the advantages 
they have derived from their own troublous 
experiences and final triumphs. For dress- 
reformers must never become so thoroughly 
comfortable that they will not remember those 
who are still in the bonds of corsets and waist- 
bands, as bound with them. 



DRESS-REFORM. l8l 

Such work, for ourselves and for others, will 
hasten the day when woman shall be more than 
her dress ; when the latter, from being a master 
shall become a servant, and man's work be held 
less admirable than that of God. 





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APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



The common and serious charge brought against 
all reformers is that they are always ready to 
pull the world to pieces, and very slow to recon- 
struct it again. And yet a dissatisfaction with 
existing evils must precede the desire for any 
thing better, and is the one step without which 
subsequent advance would be impossible. To 
create a " divine discontent " with reigning 
abuses is to prepare the way for their ultimate 
overthrow. 

But, in the matter before us, immediate reme- 
dies are so desirable and important that those 
who are calling attention to pernicious features 
of the present apparel feel impelled to provide 
some acceptable substitute. It is their wish to 
show not only why, but how, a dress-reform 
should be made. 



1 86 DRESS-REFORM. 

Accordingly, the preceding lectures have not 
merely demonstrated that all the devices of the 
female mind as to personal attire have been evil, 
and that continually, but they have sought to 
indicate what other and- better garments should 
now be adopted. Further detailed and definite 
suggestions concerning the changes that need 
to be made will be found in this Appendix, 
which is intended to supplement the words of 
the physicians, and which will contain such 
directions for the proper fashioning and adjust- 
ment of the under dress, and for the improve- 
ment of the whole apparel, as may render its 
pages of practical value. 

" This book is for the good, and not for the 
bad," wrote the " child " Bettine, in her crude 
English, at the beginning of that volume of 
Correspondence which she was struggling so 
hard to translate from her native German into a 
foreign tongue. And so I may say at starting 
that this Appendix is for earnest and sensible 
women who are seeking to reconstruct their 
clothing upon true principles of physiology and 



APPENDIX. 187 

art : it is not for triflers, who have no interest 
in reform beyond the diverting literature it sup- 
plies. Doubtless many such will peruse it ; but, 
if they are warned at the entrance that it is 
dangerous passing here, their delicate sensibili- 
ties cannot bring a complaint for any injuries 
they may receive. A description of novel gar- 
ments, to be of any service, must be minute and 
explicit ; and, since I am writing for women, the 
designations in common use among them will 
be employed, without foolish circumlocutions. 

The unreasoning prejudices of the general 
public are so strong against any radical change 
in the present appearance of woman's dress, that 
they could not fail to conquer, at last, whatever 
bravery and intelligence might to-day be dis- 
played in the adoption of a wholly new and sin- 
gular garb. It would, therefore, seem wise to 
conciliate, as far as possible, these powerful prej- 
udices ; while, at the same time, effecting that 
thorough reform in the structure of the under- 
wear, and those modifications of the outer dress, 
which health imperatively demands. So long 



1 88 DRESS-REFORM. 

as the entire underwear remains ill-formed anc 
ill-adjusted, no fitness in the externals can con- 
fer the ease and freedom which our clothing 
should secure. If we would gain essential im- 
provements that are vital to good health and 
long life, we must decide to attempt no spe- 
cious and superficial reform, nor one, however 
* thorough, that would inevitably come to a speedy 
and disastrous end. Great care and much delib- 
eration are needed in devising a style of dress 
that shall be loose, light, and of uniform thick- 
ness, while it retains the general and obvious 
features of the costume of our time. 

But the problem is one which patient and 
continued efforts have at length solved. Many 
ladies, interested in the work, have devoted 
their ingenuity and practised skill to the inven- 
tion of a simple, healthful, and complete suit of 
underwear, which may take the place of our 
present objectionable styles, and they have suc- 
ceeded in obtaining it. The forms and combi- 
nations of the ordinary garments have been well 
considered, and their evils and advantages clearly 



APPENDIX. 189 

defined. As the result of this examination, we 
have been led to abandon altogether some of the 
garments commonly worn, as hopelessly bad, to 
modify others, to recommend a few hitherto but 
little known, and to invent some that are wholly 
new and strange. These last have been evolved 
by slow stages from what were at first but float- 
ing visions of hygienic principles embodied in 
clothes ; and these visions have thus assumed a 
local habitation, and even a name, among the 
regenerated garments of the new dispensation. 
Whoever has given herself to the cutting, bast- 
ing, fitting, and altering, which are needed for 
the final realization of such dreams, will allow 
the inventors to survey their triumphs with par- 
donable pride. It is no idle thing to wrestle 
with cotton cloth and come off the victor. 

These selections and successes have been of 
sufficient number to present a variety of forms 
for the choice of would-be dress-reformers ; for 
even they have prejudices to be humored and 
individual tastes to be met. No two of them 
were ever known to choose the same outfit, in 



190 DRESS-REFORM. 

all its combinations and details ; though all must 
agree on the general principles to which every 
article should conform. 

Before proceeding to particularize, let me de- 
fine these few hygienic principles, and state, also, 
the precise objects which have been held in view 
in our attempted reconstruction of dress. 

First, and most important, the vital organs 
situated in central regions of the body must be 
allowed unimpeded action. 

Second, a uniform temperature of the body 
must be preserved. 

Third, weight must be reduced to a minimum. 

Fourth, the shoulders, and not the hips, must 
serve as the base of support. 

The first will require that all tight-fitting 
waists of whatever sort, whether in under or 
outer wear, and all tight ligatures about the 
waist, be entirely removed. 

The second will require that the clothing be 
made of the same thickness throughout, in order 
that the uniform temperature natural to the 
body may not be disturbed and destroyed. 



APPENDIX. 191 

There must be no less on the limbs than on the 
trunk ; no less on the shoulders than on the 
waist ; and no more below the waist than above. 
I have said that there should be no less on the 
limbs ; but there should really be more, since, 
being of great length in proportion to their diam- 
eter, and disconnected with the main part of the 
body save at one end, they offer a large extent of 
surface for the radiation of heat, and therefore 
tend to become colder than other sections. They 
are remote from the vital organs whose constant 
action increases the temperature of surrounding 
parts ; and the blood, on which the system 
chiefly depends for its warmth, has to traverse 
long distances in order to. reach their extrem- 
ities, and must suffer a gradual diminution of 
heat as it flows outward. This is especially true 
of the feet. They are very far from the centre, 
and move upon the ground, in the lowest and 
coldest stratum of the atmosphere. Thus the 
blood in them is liable to chills, and these are 
transmitted to portions above. Special pains 
must therefore be taken to protect the feet with 



192 DRESS-REFORM. 

warm coverings, to elevate their soles above the 
ground, by many layers of stout leather rendered 
nearly impervious to cold and moisture, and, 
also, to give as much freedom to the move- 
ments of the feet beneath their coverings as ease 
in walking will allow. By so doing, we shall per- 
mit the vital currents within the feet to flow 
freely back and forth from the heart. So much 
for the limbs. On the trunk of the body, all 
the upper garments should extend from the neck 
only so far as to meet the lower garments ; 
otherwise, we shall have the neck and shoulders 
cold, and the pelvic region overheated. Every 
thickness of cloth which covers the trunk should 
furnish sleeves and drawers for the limbs ; and 
additional coverings should be had for the legs 
and feet, to be worn in the outer air. 

The third principle will require that the skirts, 
which do now, and must ever, so long as they 
are worn, contribute the chief weight of our 
clothing, shall be made as few, as short, as scant, 
as sparingly trimmed, as good looks will permit. 

The fourth will require that all the lower gar- 



APPENDIX. 193 

ments be attached to the upper garments, or 
that they have separate and special supports of 
their own passing over the shoulders. 

If we try our present attire by these require- 
ments, we shall see clearly why it fails to em- 
body, or even to recognize, the elementary 
principles that have been stated, and why radi- 
cal changes must be made. 

Our ordinary dress provides two tight-fitting 
waists, either of which suffices to force the vital 
organs beneath it out of place and upon each 
other. In the underwear, the corset reigns su- 
preme ; in the outer dress, the plain or biased 
waist is usually buttoned as tightly over the 
corset as it can possibly be drawn. Beneath 
such compressions, what becomes of the action 
of the diaphragm, the lungs, the heart, and the 
stomach ? Then, again, every one of the lower 
garments has a binding fastened around the 
waist, and this binding is composed of a straight 
piece of cloth folded double. Drawers, under- 
skirts, balmoral, dress skirt, over-skirt, dress- 
waist, and belt, furnish, accordingly, sixteen lay- 

9 M 



194 DRESS-REFORM. 

ers of cloth girding the stomach and the yield- 
ing muscles situated in that region. These 
bands are all placed one directly over the other 
on the same line, and are usually made as tight 
as they can be buttoned ; so that a belt of iron, 
two inches wide, welded close about the body, 
could hardly be more unyielding. In such attire, 
if any one escapes weak lungs, short breath, pal- 
pitation of the heart, liver-complaint, and indiges- 
tion, it is by a special interposition of the higher 
powers in her individual case. Who shall say 
this is not an age of miracles ? Thus the first 
hygienic rule is set at naught. 

The second rule, which enjoins uniform tem- 
perature, meets with like respect. The limbs 
have not half the amount of covering which is 
put upon the trunk of the body. Many gar- 
ments have no sleeves ; and what sleeves there 
are either come to an end a few inches below 
the shoulder, or they are loose and flowing at 
the wrists, so as to expose the arm as far as the 
elbow to the cold air. As to the legs, the cloth- 
ing, which should increase in direct ratio to the 



APPENDIX. 195 

distance from the body to the feet, diminishes in 
the same ratio. Thin drawers, thinner stock- 
ings, and wind-blown skirts which keep up con- 
stant currents of air, supply little warmth to the 
limbs beneath. The feet, half-clad, and pinched 
in tight boots, are chilled in consequence. The 
trunk of the body has as many varied zones of 
temperature as the planet it inhabits. Its frigid 
zone is above, on the shoulders and the chest ; 
for, although the dress-waist extends from the 
neck to the waist, most, if not all, of the gar- 
ments worn beneath it are low-necked. The 
temperate zone lies between the shoulders and 
the belt ; for that region receives the additional 
coverings of under-vest, corset, and chemise. 
The torrid zone begins with the belts and bands, 
and extends to the limbs below ; for all the 
upper garments are continued below the belt, 
and all the lower garments, the drawers and 
skirts, come up as far as the belt : so that the 
clothing over the whole pelvic region must be 
at least double what it is over any other section. 
But it is more than double, it is quadruple ; for 



196 DRESS-REFORM. 

the tops of all these lower garments have a 
superfluous fulness of material which is brought 
into the binding by gathers or by plaits. These 
are especially abundant at the back, over the 
spine, where one of the centres of the nervous 
system is situated, and where the kidneys lie. 
When to this excess of cloth is added a panier 
and sash-bows, we can understand why deadly 
torrid heats prevail in that region, and why the 
worst consequences follow. The result is stated 
by a physician to be " a chronic inflammation 
of the internal organs, — mother of a hundred 
ills that afflict women." 

The weight of our clothing increases every 
year ; and, if much more is added, women will 
be compelled to maintain a sitting posture the 
greater part of the time, in order to render their 
dress endurable. Sedet, ceternumque sedebit, in- 
felix Theseus. Skirts, in their best estate, re- 
quire considerable cloth ; and the greater number 
of them are made of the heaviest material com- 
monly worn, — viz., cotton cloth, with the addi- 
tion of trimmings. The dress skirt is long, and 



APPENDIX. 197 

doubled by an over-skirt ; and, in place of the 
simple gimps and braids and the few ruffles once 
used for adorning them, the material of the dress 
is heaped upon the breadths, in the form of 
puffs, flounces, and plaits. Add to this burden 
heavy cotton linings, facings, and " skirt-pro- 
tectors " at the bottom, and the weight can only 
be described as enormous. 

Then, as to the suspension of clothing from 
the shoulders. Of course, all the garments worn 
above the waist hang from the shoulders by 
necessity ; but all the lower garments, as now 
worn, hang from the hips, and have no connec- 
tion whatever with any piece above. Many 
would fain believe that the hips are the proper 
points of support ; but the testimony of all med- 
ical intelligence on this subject is clear and 
indisputable. Our four physicians were unani- 
mous and emphatic in their declarations that the 
hips should be relieved of all weight ; and no 
physician has been found anywhere to advocate 
a different view. One says in a published paper, 
"No description can give any adequate idea of 



198 DRESS-REFORM. 

the evils consequent upon wearing skirts hang- 
ing from the hips ; " and still another says, 
" Women carry their clothing suspended mainly 
from their hips ; and, as the clothes press by 
their weight upon the soft abdominal walls, they 
cause displacement of the internal organs." It 
is this dragging down — not upon the hip-bones 
themselves, but upon the front and unprotected 
portions of the body which they enclose — that 
produces the chief harm. Even the dress skirts 
now force the hips to carry their excessive bur- 
dens. Formerly, as we all remember, each dress 
had but one skirt, and this was invariably sewed 
to the waist. Thus it hung directly from the 
shoulders, provided the bodice was loose enough 
to allow any tension to extend to the regions 
above. When the dress skirts were first made 
as separate garments, and put into bindings of 
their own, the arrangement was thought to add 
greatly to convenience, but it has proved one of 
the most pernicious features of our present style 
of dress. 

The facts already stated must convince my. 



APPENDIX. 199 

readers that the attire now worn by women, in 
its utter disregard of physiological laws, is not 
only an injury to themselves, but an insult to 
their Maker, and an undoubted abomination in 
his sight. 

Some garments are found to be wholly irrec- 
oncilable with these laws, and should there- 
fore be dispensed with altogether. Of these, 
the most important are the corset and the chem- 
ise. Since they are the very two without which 
the average female mind will find it impossible 
to conceive of further existence upon this terres- 
trial sphere, I shall do well to pause, and state 
clearly wherein their obj ectionable character- 
istics lie, and why they are past remedy. 

Corset. — Concerning the evils of this gar- 
ment, it would seem that enough has already 
been said. Physicians have always denounced 
it as most pernicious, and have refused to com- 
promise with it in any of its forms. But, in spite 
of these protests, women still cling to it, and 
still declare that they must wear it or perish. It 
holds its place because of one or two plausible 



200 DRESS-REFORM. 

arguments in its favor, which are not met 
and reasoned away, but suffered to remain un- 
recognized and unrefuted. Since they prove so 
powerful, they ought to receive more serious 
attention. 

Enfeebled by past errors in dress, and with 
muscles rendered incapable, by enforced inac- 
tion, of doing their appointed work, wearers of 
the corset assert that it is absolutely essential 
to the support of the body, and that without it 
they would collapse into an uncertain shape, with 
neither contours nor comeliness. They claim 
that its upper portion is needed for the support 
of the bust, and that its lower portion serves 
as a shield and protector for the abdomen, so 
that heavy skirts do not drag them to the 
earth. 

In short, had no human being been bright 
enough for the invention of this garment, one- 
half of God's humanity must have been a hope- 
less failure. He was able, it appears, to construct 
man so that he should be equal to the require- 
ments of the life conferred upon him ; but woman 



APPENDIX. 201 

came forth from his hand wholly incompetent to 
maintain herself erect, or to discharge the daily 
duties enjoined upon her. Fortunately, some 
one of his creatures, seeing the deficiency, suc- 
ceeded in supplementing his work. Thus one 
skeleton sufficed for men ; but for women it had 
to be propped up externally by another skeleton 
strapped about it. Or, in other words, Nature 
made man, but Nature plus Art made woman : 
take away Art, and she becomes chaos, — "a 
shapeless form and void." Does any one believe 
that, when the Creator gave to women their 
forms, he did not also give them the muscles 
w r hich its proper maintenance would require ? 

Tie a strong, healthy arm to a board, and keep 
it there for months ; then remove its artificial 
prop. The arm cannot lift itself ; it falls help- 
less at the side : ergo, never take the arm from 
the board, and it will never be weak. If an 
undue fulness of bust needs support, let the 
support come from above, and not from below. 
Portly Roman matrons girded up their breasts 
from shoulder to shoulder, and never dreamed of 



202 DRESS-REFORM. 

a corset.* For them, support did not imply, or 
necessitate, compression of the waist. Cannot 
modern women equal them in ingenuity and 
good sense ? Cases which would require such 
provision are rarer than they seem. The great 
majority of women, growing up without corsets, 
would find them wholly useless. In strength 
the body would prove sufficient unto itself. To 
doubt this is to doubt divine foresight, power, or 
benevolence. 

It is true that corsets prevent one from feel- 
ing, at every motion, the pull and drag of each 
separate binding at the waist ; but it is as Nature 

* " Stays for compressing the form into an unnatural ap- 
pearance of slimness were not known to the ancients, and 
would have been an abomination in their eyes. In one of the 
plays of Terence, a severe censure is conveyed on so unnatural 
a taste, which is confirmed by all the monuments of art. Still 
we should be in error if we supposed a girl in those days, 
even though vincto pectore, was provided with stays. All they 
had was a bosom-band {stropkium mammillare), for the pur- 
pose of elevating the bosom, and also perhaps to confine in 
some degree the nimius tumor. We must not confound with 
this the fascia pectoralis, which was merely worn to confine 
the breast in its growth, and was, consequently, not a part of 
the usual dress. The stropkium was placed over the inner 
tunica> and was usually made of leather." — Anthonys Roman 
Antiquities. 



APPENDIX. 203 

relieves us from the sensation of pain when it 
becomes excruciating. Numbness deadens the 
nerves ; and corsets deaden sensation by a com- 
pression which induces partial numbness. The 
whole body beneath them being crowded to- 
gether till its parts are incapable of much dis- 
tinct motion among themselves, no one portion 
is conscious of more discomfort than the rest. 
This is why they render the skirt-bands endura- 
ble. Give up the corset, and retain all other 
garments as previously worn, and the clothing 
becomes insupportable. The remedy is not to 
replace the compress as before, but to modify 
the remainder of the clothing till it is, brought 
into some accordance with physiological laws. 
To reduce the weight of the skirts, to enlarge 
their bindings and suspend them from above, 
would be the only sensible cure. The corset 
would then be a superfluity, if it were nothing 
worse. 

But many say, the corset is only bad when it 
is worn tight ; loosen it, and it can do no harm ; 
its abuse, and not its use should be condemned. 



204 DRESS-REFORM. 

This statement is inadmissible. A corset is 
always bad, whether laced or not. Its very- 
structure necessitates a pinching of the waist 
in front, even when no strings are tied : for, by 
many slender gores artfully woven into the cloth, 
it is given the shape of an hour-glass ; and, if it 
is tight enough to retain its place at all, it must 
enforce this shape upon the yielding body be- 
neath, with the stomach crowded into the neck 
of the glass. 

It is not thus that Nature models her human 
beings, whether women or men. The trunk of 
the body resembles an Egyptian column, with the 
greatest girth about the middle. The lower ribs 
spread out, and enclose a larger space than the 
upper ribs, as a glance at page 47 will show. 
Below these floating ribs, there are no bones 
whatever at the waist, if we except the spine 
behind, which serves as a connecting line be- 
tween the upper and lower portions of the frame- 
work. The reason for this is apparent. No 
bones can be trusted over this region, lest they 
impede the full and free action of vital organs 



APPENDIX. 205 

beneath. Soft flesh and elastic muscles are the 
only wrapping allowed. Thus Nature has left 
the body. Should not this teach woman how to 
construct the covering she adds to this part of 
her system ? But what does she do ? Taking 
advantage of its yielding character, she crowds 
this section inward, instead of permitting it to 
expand outward ; and girds and laces and binds 
and tortures it, till it is smaller than any bones 
would compel it to be. What should be the 
base of the pyramid is converted into its apex. 
While it was designed that all human beings 
should be larger below the ribs than below the 
arms, women have so re-formed themselves that 
they would be ashamed to resemble the Venus 
of Milo, or even the petite and mincing Venus 
de Medici. They go, however, in their best 
" glove-fitting " French corsets, to study those 
famous marbles in galleries of art, and express 
unbounded admiration for the superb loveliness 
of their forms, and the wonderful fidelity to 
nature which ancient sculptors displayed. 
Furthermore, the trunk of the body is meant 



206 DRESS-REFORM. 

to be flexible, to bend backward and forward 
easily within certain limits. To allow this, the 
one bone which runs its entire length — the 
backbone — is broken wholly apart at every inch 
of its extent, and a supple joint inserted. But 
the corset, by means of two long, stiff whale- 
bones behind, and two long metal bars in front, 
forces the body to remain as inflexible through- 
out that section as if, for half a yard, it were 
strapped firmly between two iron bars. The 
lower cells of the lungs would expand, the bars 
say, No ; the stomach would rise and fall as 
the heart throbs, the bars say, No ; the body 
would bend backward and forward at the waist 
in a hundred slight movements, the bars say, 
No : keep to your line ; thus far shalt thou go, 
and no farther. But Nature is both sly and 
strong, and she loves her way. She will outwit 
artifice in the long run, whatever it may cost 
her. The iron bars defy her power ; but, by 
days and months of steady pressure, thrusting 
them back from her persistently, she forces 
them to bend. This done, the human hand, that 



APPENDIX. 207 

could not curve them at first, cannot make them 
straight again. Nature has moulded her bar- 
riers to accommodate, in some measure, her own 
needs ; and, when they are replaced with new, 
she sets herself again to the work. 

But it is said, "You can improve corsets in 
several ways, and render them harmless." With- 
out doubt there is a choice in their varieties. 
Many women, I am aware, rise up and call Mad- 
ame Foye blessed ; and there are manufacturers 
who proclaim " comfort corsets," with shoulder- 
straps above, and buttons for stocking-suspend- 
ers below, and lacings under the arm as well as 
behind, and other contrivances intended to ren- 
der them worthy to be worn in the millennium. 
None, however, banish the iron in front, which 
is one of their worst features. But these efforts 
to improve corsets reveal a determination on the 
part of their makers to keep them in vogue. 
All they can do, however, will furnish but tri- 
fling mitigations of an evil which can never 
be converted into a good. A witty writer once 
discoursed on the "total depravity of material 



208 DRESS-REFORM. 

things ; " and, if one thing can be more totally- 
depraved than another, that thing is the cor- 
set. By and by, as intelligence increases, and 
the practices of ignorance disappear, the com- 
pression of the waist now practised by European 
and American women will be held to be as ridic- 
ulous and far more pernicious than the com- 
pression of the feet practised by the Chinese. 
Indeed, our heathen sisters must appear far 
more sensible than we ; for their favorite torture 
affects only a remote and comparatively unim- 
portant part of the body, while ours is a tor- 
ture of the trunk at its very centre, where the 
springs of life are certain to be weakened and 
diseased. 

One of the strongest reasons for the general 
adoption of the corset — though it is one not 
commonly avowed — is the belief that it con- 
duces to beauty and symmetry of figure. Slen- 
der forms are usually praised, and chiefly because 
they are associated with the litheness and the 
undeveloped graces of youth. But a pinched 
waist cannot make a slender form, or give the 






APPENDIX. 209 

appearance of one, if above and below there be 
breadth and thickness which no efforts can di- 
minish. Indeed, broad shoulders and a full chest 
only appear the larger by contrast with the 
slight span of a girded waist ; and thus they be- 
come more conspicuous from the attempt made 
to conceal them. The waist itself, lacking the 
easy, varied motion and the peculiar shape which 
Nature gives, deceives no one as to the cause of 
its small dimensions ; and the poor sufferer, who 
would fain pass for a wand-like sylph, tortures 
herself in vain, and has only her pains for her 
labor. Although all men disclaim any liking for 
an unnaturally small waist, all women persist in 
believing that a wasp-like appearance, at what- 
ever age, and under whatever conditions, is sure 
to render them lovelier in the eyes of their ad- 
mirers. Mature matrons should have a look of 
stability, and that dignity of presence and car- 
riage which only a portly, well-developed person 
seems to confer. Such a mien is as much the 
beauty of middle age, as slenderness is the beauty 
of youth. And a large, robust woman never looks 



2 1 DRESS-REFORM. 

so well-shaped and comely as when waist and 
shoulders retain the proportionate size which 
Nature gave. 

But the defenders of the garment in question 
are found ready to dispute every inch of ground 
on their forced retreat. They say, " The corsets 
now worn are surely a great improvement on 
those of the past : how much more delicate and 
flexible they are than the stanch buckram stays 
of a hundred years ago ! " Before me lies a pair 
of such stays, looking as bright and new as if 
made yesterday, and yet known to have been 
worn in the year 1787, by a country squire's wife, 
in what was then the province of Maine. They 
are home-made, stout, and formidable. Between 
an external covering of firm green worsted cloth, 
of unknown make, and a lining of white linen, 
bound together on the edges with white kid, are 
ranged stiff whalebones, — over a hundred in 
number, by actual count, — placed close beside 
each other, with rows of white stitching set 
faithfully between. Seven segments, or gores, 
divide the stays from top to bottom, and give 






APPENDIX. 211 

them that clumsy shape for which, no doubt, 
they were chiefly prized. In Hogarth's pictures 
we see their exact prototypes. Glancing at 
them, one would say that they were incompara- 
bly worse than the corset of to-day. They are 
stiff and thick and heavy, laced behind with a 
leather string, still tied to the eyelet-holes, while 
a broad wooden busk keeps the long front as 
straight and imposing as appear the bodices of 
Copley's painted ladies, or that of Queen Eliza- 
beth herself. In our modern corset, it is not all 
stiffening : there are lucid intervals between the 
bones, where cotton cloth pure and simple has 
a place; but these are in reality a. whalebone 
cuirass, with a hundred vertical joints. Yet, 
terrible as they look, there is no ground for sup- 
posing that they proved fatal to their wearer. Her 
great-grand-daughter, who writes this, knows lit- 
tle concerning her, save that she lived honored 
and respected in spite of her stays ; and if she 
died in consequence of them, it was at a goodly 
age, and the cause of her demise was never sus- 
pected. Certainly her sons were stalwart men, 



212 DRESS-REFORM. 

of almost giant stature ; and if her later descend- 
ants are not all blessed with bounteous health, 
they are never heard to attribute their weakness 
to the sinful lacing practised by a female ances- 
tor long before they were born. 

Nor do these stays deserve to be blamed for 
present ills. While they are bad enough, they 
are better, and not worse, than the inventions 
that have succeeded them. The latter allow not 
an inch of empty space to be enclosed beneath 
their supple bones, and the many cunning gores 
fit themselves closely to every indentation and 
every curve ; while the former, by maintaining 
one unbroken slant in front from top to bottom, 
made the concave, hour-glass shape impossible, 
and allowed the stomach to preserve its proper 
contour. One can believe that there might have 
been comfortable breathing beneath them, even 
when they were brought well together by the 
leather string. Then, too, the old-fashioned 
stays were seldom worn till womanhood ; and 
the hardy life of a New England country girl in 
those early days had probably given the wearer 






APPENDIX. 213 

of this garment that sturdy strength and vigor 
which enabled her to resist the evil influences 
of the dress of later life. And, after she became 
a matron, she put on her cuirass only occasion- 
ally, when she was to ride, perhaps, on her pil- 
lion, to the great town of Falmouth, six miles 
away, or to take tea with the doctor's wife, in 
the august presence of the parson. But now 
woman's form is not suffered to attain its natural 
size and strength ; for corsets are put on in early 
girlhood, and worn steadily ever after, as a nec- 
essary part of the daily dress. 

The corsets in use thirty or forty years ago, 
when the buckram stays had had their day, and 
before the products of French and German man- 
ufactories had become so common, were less 
objectionable than either of the other styles. 
Rows of soft wicking stitched into cotton jean 
took the place of the whalebones ; and broad 
straps passing over the shoulders helped to sup- 
port the weight of the clothing. In the front, 
the wooden busk still held its place. 

This last feature of the old garment is usually 



214 



DRESS-REFORM. 



regarded as the worst article that woman ever 
invented for her own torment ; but it had merits 
which should not be forgotten. Besides pre- 
venting a depression of the stomach from tight 
waist-bands, it was capable of being readily re- 
moved, when its wearer was at home and inclined 
to sit at ease ; but the two iron bars, or clasps, 
which have taken its place, are too firmly fast- 
ened to the cloth to be withdrawn at will, and 
the discomfort they occasion must be endured 
without respite. In this connection, I think of 
Madame de Stael, sitting at table, as some one 
describes her, engaged in high and mighty dis- 
course with her gentleman friends, — with Ben- 
jamin Constant, Schlegel, and perhaps Goethe 
himself, — and interrupting her disquisition on 
the philosophy of literature to crowd down an un- 
manageable wooden busk that would assert itself 
in spite of her efforts ; till, discouraged at last, 
she drew it boldly forth and laid it on the wait- 
er's tray to be removed. Even under that short 
bodice of hers, then, she thought it necessary to 
wear this instrument of torture. In matters of 



APPENDIX, 21$ 

daily life and habit the wisest women appear to 
be little superior to their contemporaries. 

Chemise. — I have shown why the corset must 
inevitably perish. The chemise is condemned 
for quite different reasons. No charge of com- 
pression or of inflexible shape can be brought 
against that : it errs in the other direction, if 
that can be said to err which appears to be 
wholly without use, and to offer no excuse for 
its existence. But its sins are not merely nega- 
tive. It produces a great inequality in the tem- 
perature of the system, by affording no covering 
for neck and arms, while it furnishes loose folds 
of useless cloth to be wrapped about the body 
on its warmest part and under the tight dress- 
waist. There is an excess of material where it 
is not needed, over the lower portion of the 
trunk ; and a deficiency where it is needed, 
over the extremities. The chemise can offer no 
support to any other garment ; and in every 
respect a more absurd and worthless article of 
clothing could not possibly have been devised. 
Its rude and primitive construction should recom- 



2 1 6 DRESS-REFORM. 

mend it to no intelligence higher than that of 
South Sea Islanders, by whom it is doubtless 
worn. In civilized countries it is doomed to 
follow the corset to that limbo which dress- 
reformers will hereafter keep for the cumbrous 
and injurious habiliments of the past. 

So much, then, we abandon : what do we re- 
tain, and of what will the reconstructed and 
hygienic attire consist ? It is evident that no 
mercy can be shown to tight waists, built on the 
inverted pyramid plan ; and that bindings for the 
waist must be utterly annihilated, if that shall 
prove possible ; if it does not, they must be 
kept below the line of the waist, and terraced 
one above another. 

Dividing our entire clothing into three divi- 
sions, — viz., underwear, skirts, external dress, — 
let us consider each in order. 

The first division, the underwear, will in win- 
ter usually comprise two layers, — the flannel 
and the cotton garments ; in summer, only one, — 
the cotton, or linen. Dealers in such goods tell 
us that the number of woollen under-garments 



APPENDIX. 217 

sold to women in our country during the last 
ten years has been greatly in excess of previous 
sales ; and it is gratifying to know that good 
sense in this department of dress is so rapidly 
on the increase. Many now wear such garments 
throughout the summer. We must, therefore, 
treat them as a part of the ordinary dress. 

Flannel Underwear. — As commonly worn, this 
consists of two distinct garments, the drawers 
and the vest. The objections to their present 
arrangement are that one overlaps the other over 
half of the trunk of the body, while the only pro- 
vision for the support of the lower is a binding 
pulling at the waist. Thus we have inequal- 
ity of temperature and improper suspension of 
weight well provided for at the start. 

The remedy for these evils is twofold. Re- 
taining the two garments, we may shorten the 
upper till it only meets the lower ; and may con- 
nect the lower directly with it at several points, 
so that the weight shall be borne by the shoul- 
ders, and not by the hips. Or we may have one 
garment woven entire, which shall take the place 
10 



218 DRESS-REFORM. 

of the two commonly worn. This remedy is 
much to be preferred. And garments of this 
description are neither new nor strange. They 
have been manufactured for years in England, 
by the well-known firm of Cartwright & Warner, 
whose merino goods take the lead in every mar- 
ket. They are worn a great deal in Europe, and 
have been inported into this country at different 
times by nearly all the leading dry-goods houses 
of our principal cities, under the name of ladies' 
union flannel suits. Many American ladies have 
learned to like them during a stay abroad, and 
have since created some demand for them here ; 
but in general they are little known. They are 
usually made of soft, thick merino wool; are 
high-necked and long-sleeved ; and nothing more 
light, warm, comfortable, well-suspended and 
simple can be imagined. A representation of 
them will be found in the illustration which 
accompanies this Appendix, upon the card 
marked 4. Care must be taken in selecting 
these garments, if one wishes them to reach to 
the ankle under the stocking, as many only 



APPENDIX. 219 

come well below the knee ; while all those which 
have been found for sale in this country during 
the past season have had the objectionable feat- 
ure of short sleeves. There is a long-sleeved 
variety, however, which is constructed through- 
out in strict accord with our four hygienic prin- 
ciples of dress ; and this will, no doubt, be 
imported when the demand for it appears. 

Those who have obliging friends travelling 
abroad can obtain these goods from shops in 
nearly all the leading cities of England and Scot- 
land, and perhaps from the continent. Some- 
thing similar can be formed by sewing together 
our ordinary knit under-vest and drawers just 
below the waist, and cutting off all superfluous 
cloth. Such a combination garment is a part of 
the hygienic suit worn by patients at the Health 
Home in Dansville, N. Y. Or a similar gar- 
ment may be cut and made from unshrinking 
flannel cloth, and it will be found very comfort- 
able. 

Material. — No directions can be given con- 
cerning the quality and thickness of the flannel 



220 • DRESS-REFORM. 

which shall comprise this suit : every lady will 
consult her own taste and habit ; but, if the limbs 
be well covered, the material may be much 
thinner than is commonly worn. While our 
climate seems to require that we should protect 
ourselves well from its fitful changes, it is never- 
theless true that many persons accustom them- 
selves to more clothing than they really need. 
Rousseau held the opinion that men could dress 
in linen suits in winter, if they never enervated 
the system by wearing any thing more substan- 
tial ; and though this notion, like many he 
cherished, was a little extravagant, there is no 
doubt that the less one wears the better, pro- 
vided there is no sensation of cold. The thicker 
the clothing, the heavier it is to carry about, and 
the less readily does it permit the constant 
and invisible exhalations from the body to pass 
through its folds. Then a thin, light flannel 
cloth, such as the Scotch make, is often as warm 
as heavier goods. All flannel used for under- 
wear should be light, warm, and porous ; and in 
its manufacture a little cotton should be mixed 



APPENDIX. 221 

with the wool, to prevent shrinking. Under- 
garments of «yery nice all-wool flannel, if washed 
every week, as of course they should be, soon 
become nearly impervious to air, and they ought 
then to be' discarded. Those persons who object 
to flannel under-garments for summer may wear, 
instead, a suit of woollen gauze, or one of delicate 
knit silk. This last is the coolest and lightest 
of all materials ; but it is not recommended to 
poor people, or to those who object to becoming 
such. Its durability, however, compensates in 
some measure for its high cost. For the first 
suit, almost any material should be preferred to 
cotton, as this has a peculiarly drying and heat- 
ing effect upon the skin. 

The union flannel suit just described is incom- 
parably better than any other similar garment or 
garments, since it fulfils perfectly all the require- 
ments of the four hygienic principles to be ob- 
served in dress. But, if two separable garments 
are preferred to one, we must provide for the j oin- 
ing of the two at several points somewhere below 
the waist, so that the weight of the whole may 



222 DRESS-REFORM. 

depend freely from the shoulders. The upper 
garment will be shortened till it extends only 
far enough to meet the lower, in order to avoid 
the inequality of temperature which the present 
adjustment of these garments necessitates. 

yoining of Two Garments. — The more com- 
mon and acceptable method of fastening the two 
garments together will be by buttons. Upon the 
straight lower edge of the vest, — when it has 
been made of the right length, and properly 
stayed either by a hem or a narrow facing, — sew 
four or six buttons ; and in the top of the other 
garment make button-holes to correspond. The 
buttons should be of flat or concave surface, and 
about half an inch in diameter : one should be 
placed on each side of the vest ; and between 
these, both on front and back, may be one or 
two others, set at equal distances apart. If the 
top of the lower garment is divided into two 
sections of equal length, there must be a hori- 
zontal button-hole in both ends of these sections ; 
and the two button-holes on the same side will 
pass over the same button. The other button- 
holes will be vertical. 



APPENDIX. 223 

If the top, or binding, is of one piece, — as 
will be the case, if the garment is of the open 
pattern, — its two ends should meet at the front ; 
and, if the vest also opens on the entire length 
of the front with a buttoned fold, a simple mode 
of lacing may be used to connect the two gar- 
ments below the waist. In place of the buttons 
and button-holes, imagine common metal eyelet- 
holes to be set, an inch apart, in each garment. 
Lay the edge of the drawers upon the vest, with 
the eyelet-holes exactly corresponding in posi- 
tion. Then run a lacing or cord in and out, 
alternately, through the corresponding eyelet- 
holes, as may be seen in the illustration, card 9. 
There, however, the under row of eyelets is not 
set in the garment itself, but in a firm English 
tape an inch and a quarter broad, which is se- 
cured to the garment by two rows of stitching 
upon each edge, with the inner rows crossing at 
regular intervals. This gives a neater finish, 
and does not allow the cord to pass through to 
the under side, but it is at the expense of more 
labor. For the cord, any common corset-lacing 



224 DRESS-REFORM. 

will do, but a flat linen braid with a long metal 
at one end is best : to the other end, sew a loop 
of smaller braid : through this pass the lacing 
after it has gone through the first eyelet-holes, 
and draw it up closely ; thus the end is secured. 
The other end, when the lacing is done, must be 
tied to a piece of tape sewed to the garment. 
The eyelets are very readily put in by a simple 
instrument made for the purpose, and in use in 
many stores and manufactories ; or, in fine cloth, 
they may be punched by a stiletto and sewed 
over by hand, as in embroidery. This forms a 
smooth, pliable, and secure mode of fastening, 
connects two garments more closely than it is 
convenient to do with buttons, and thus distrib- 
utes the weight and the pull equably over the 
shoulders. It renders the garments practically 
one while they are worn, and they might so 
remain; but it also allows that they may be 
made two, when it is desired to change either 
one and not the other. 

The tops of all drawers and skirts should be 
without gathers or bindings. How these may 



APPENDIX. 225 

be avoided in skirts will be hereafter shown. 
Superfluous cloth in the tops of drawers should 
be removed by gores : if properly cut, one gore 
on each side and two behind will suffice. Line 
the smooth top, thus made, with a facing suf- 
ficiently wide to hold button- holes or eyelets. 
Thus we rid ourselves of the work of putting on 
bindings, and of the clumsy, thick seam they 
give, while we lessen the cloth over the hips. 
In woollen material, however, two flat plaits of 
the cloth should be laid in place of two gores, 
somewhere on the sides or behind, as a provi- 
sion against shrinkage. 

White Cotton Suit. — The second layer of the 
underwear, made of cotton cloth, — or muslin, 
as it is called outside of New England, — usually 
comprises chemise and drawers. The chemise 
we abandon, and to the ordinary cotton drawers 
the same objections apply as ito the flannel. 
The best substitute for both is a new garment 
called the chemiloon. It is represented on 
card 3 of the illustration, and is essentially the 
union flannel suit put into cotton. Like that 
10* o 



226 DRESS-REFORM. 

garment, it covers the body with a uniform 
thickness ; it is light and loose, with no gathers 
and no waist-band, and the whole weight hangs 
freely from the shoulders. It is very easily 
donned, may be either of the closed or open 
pattern, and can be adorned with all the em- 
broidery and ornament that any one wishes to 
bestow upon it. It has been made and worn 
by many ladies, and they find it exceedingly 
comfortable. The material for it should be 
either common cotton cloth, linen, or Lonsdale 
cotton. 

The only objection brought against the cotton 
chemiloon is its oneness ; but this will prove, 
on wearing, to be the strongest point in its 
favor. For those who cherish the objection, 
however, a similar garment is provided, which 
is composed of two parts. Its upper section is 
a white basque waist, fitted well to the form, 
with a skirt five inches long ; and it will be 
found represented on cards 5 and 6.- It may be 
made of cambric for summer, of jean or twilled 
cotton for winter, or of common cotton cloth for 



APPENDIX. 227 

all seasons. Buttoned upon this basque, below 
the waist-line, and just above the faced edge, 
are drawers, of the open style ; and another tier 
of buttons above holds the underskirt, or the 
colored flannel drawers that sensible women 
wear in its place. A button higher still, on the 
middle of the back, serves in part to support the 
balmoral and to keep it in place. Instead of 
buttons, the mode of lacing already described 
may be used on this waist to advantage, for the 
lower garment at least. The inner faced edge 
of the basque serves to hold buttons for such 
attachments as stocking supporters. This ar- 
rangement of two separable garments probably 
furnishes the best possible substitute for chemi- 
loons ; but the superiority of the latter garment 
in simplicity of structure and of make, and in 
the facility and speed in dressing which it allows, 
is plainly apparent. 

The stocking must be classed with this divi- 
sion of the apparel. It should be of warm 
woollen for winter, the warmer the better. The 
worsted balmoral stockings now so common 



DRESS-REFORM. 



are an improvement on the cotton hose in 
which it has been fashionable to shiver for the 
past few winters ; but they are not as thick 
as they should be to ensure warm feet. For 
keeping the stocking in place, no garters are 
to be thought of. The highest order of Eng- 
lish knighthood may adopt the garter as its 
badge, and may append to it the motto, Honi 
soit qui mal y pense ; but no dress-reformer 
with a conscience can allow it a place in her 
wardrobe, and not to think evil of it is to be 
ignorant of the simplest truths that physiology 
teaches. Neither should the stocking be up- 
held by any elastic band that connects with a 
waist-band, for to compress the waist and to 
drag upon the hips is far worse than to com- 
press the arteries below the knee. When a 
flannel suit is worn and is close-fitting at the 
ankle, the stocking may be drawn up over it, 
and secured at top by a button or small safety- 
pin. When the suit is loose at the ankle, the 
stocking will pass under it ; and an elastic or 
tape band for its suspension must be attached 



APPENDIX. 22g 

to the upper portion of the garment at some 
comfortable point, so that the shoulders may 
serve for the support. For this purpose, a piece 
of stout tape, about a third of a yard long, 
may be folded over at the middle, so as to 
give the shape of a letter V with the included 
angle made acute. Upon the point of the V 
sew a button ; sew the two upper ends of the 
V to the inside of the flannel or cotton chem- 
iloon, just above the waist-line at the side ; then 
the button will hang free from the garment, and 
will pull from the shoulder on both front and 
back. To the button on the lower point of the 
doubled tape attach some such stocking-sup- 
porter as will be seen depending from cards 
3 and 4 in the illustration, or any other variety 
that may be found convenient. Some portion 
of this supporter should be elastic ; and one end 
of the upright band should be doubled upon 
itself, by means of a movable slide or in some 
other way, so that it can be made longer or 
shorter according to the length of the stocking. 
The top of the stocking will be secured by but- 



230 DRESS-REFORM. 

tons, or by a simple clamping contrivance upon 
the ends of the supporter. 

Skirts. — This brings us to the second divi- 
sion of dress, — the skirts. They must be 
recognized as indispensable parts of our present 
attire ; but no one who makes a study of female 
gear can fail to see that they are essentially 
bad. Do what we will with them, they still add 
enormously to the weight of clothing, prevent 
cleanliness of attire about the ankles, overheat 
by their tops the lower portion of the body, 
impede locomotion, and invite accidents. In 
short, they are uncomfortable, unhealthy, unsafe, 
and unmanageable. Convinced of this fact by 
patient and almost fruitless endeavors to remove 
their objectionable qualities, the earnest dress- 
reformer is loath to believe that skirts hanging 
below the knee are not transitory features in 
woman's attire, as similar features have been 
in the dress of men, and surely destined to dis- 
appear with the tight hour-glass waists and 
other monstrosities of the present costume. 
Though our eyes may not be privileged to 



APPENDIX. 231 

behold that promised land of the far future, 
wherein women shall move about, no longer 
swathed and hampered by floating raiment, but 
clothed simply and serviceably as men are 
clothed, we may yet express a conviction that 
any changes the wisest of us can to-day pro- 
pose are only a mitigation of an evil which 
can never be done away till women emerge 
from this vast, swaying, undefined, and indefin- 
able mass of drapery, into the shape which 
God gave to his human beings. It cannot be 
that we are to remain for all time the only 
creatures in the universe that destroy their 
natural appearance by artificial coverings. Ani- 
mals, birds, and the whole brute creation add 
nothing to the apparel given them at birth ; 
men, in all save a few countries, outline their 
forms by the dress they have chosen. Why, 
then, should woman, whose shape differs so 
little from that of her brother man, be expected 
to hide and confuse the contours of this com- 
mon human form, as if they were a disgrace 
to her, and to her alone, and walk and work and 



232 DRESS-REFORM. 






live at perpetual disadvantage, because the won- 
derful mechanisms of the body, provided for her 
use in such work and such living, are clogged 
and weakened by masses of superimposed and 
useless drapery ? 

But since it is ordained that one half of Euro- 
pean and American humanity may now appear 
in the shape which God gave them, — as bipeds, 
— and the other half may not, but must venture 
abroad only with a balloon-like expansion swing- 
ing loosely from the waist where it is tied, we 
cannot abolish skirts altogether from our present 
regenerated dress, as we do the corset, but must 
treat them as necessary evils. They seem in- 
tended for two purposes, — to keep the legs 
warm and to conceal them. As producers of 
warmth, they are utter failures : one half the 
cloth they require, if put into the form of 
drawers, will give twice the protection from cold, 
while the swinging motion of the skirts gives 
rise to a constant current of air beneath them. 
But nothing can take their place as inflating 
disfigurements. So let us be wise in our day 



APPENDIX. 233 

and generation : let us seem to wear them, and 
yet wear only enough to save our appearance. 

By skirts in this connection, I do not mean 
those of the outer dress, but all beneath them. 
Before speaking of their number, a few hints 
may be given in regard to lessening the weight 
of each. Put as little cloth into them as possi- 
ble ; make them no wider or longer than good 
looks require. The hem of the longest should 
be at least four inches from the ground, their 
tops two or three inches below the waist-line. 
From these tops, all superfluous material should 
be removed, by gores or other means, and not 
retained in gathers and plaits. Thus heat, as 
well as weight, will be diminished. Make them 
of the lightest serviceable cloth : the manufac- 
tured balmorals of felt are too heavy and too 
thick at the top, though admirably shaped. For 
white goods, cambric weighs much less than 
" muslin." If tucks must adorn them, let them 
be few and fine. 

The number of these skirts will be one at 
least ; for we are not providing for a gymnasium 



234 DRESS-REFORM. 

or bloomer suit, which requires none. This one 
will be a balmoral, or its substitute. The under- 
skirt would make a second, but it has given 
place to an extra pair of drawers, usually of 
colored material somewhat like the outer dress. 
Retaining the under-skirt and adding a hoop, we 
have three, — the largest allowable number. 

When the under-skirt is dispensed with, the 
outer colored drawers which are worn instead 
should button upon the garment beneath, 
whether it be chemiloon or basque waist. Or 
they should form part of a second chemiloon 
of colored flannel, covering entirely the white 
flannel suit ; and then the cotton chemiloon is 
omitted. 

When the under-skirt is retained, it may be so 
constructed that there shall be no useless fulness 
at the top to be removed by gores. The cloth 
of which it is to be made should be cut semi- 
circular in shape, as outlined on card 7. A 
small piece of the same shape is cut from the 
centre, of sufficient size to leave the top of the 
desired width. Sew the two straight edges 



APPENDIX. 235 

together, allowing for a placket, and the skirt is 
shaped completely, without other seams. The 
lower rounded edge cannot well be hemmed, and 
a facing would be troublesome to fit ; therefore 
scallop the edge with the button-hole stitch, or 
set on a ruffle or a Hamburg edging with a 
narrow straight facing. Do not hem the sel- 
vages of the placket : they may be faced, if 
thought necessary, and a gusset set in for a 
stay. Face the top for button-holes, and hang 
the skirt upon the chemiloon beneath. The 
placket should be on the front, or on the left 
side near the front ; and this is true of all skirts. 
They are then whole in the back ; and a button- 
hole should be made directly behind, to meet a 
button set rather high on the seam of the waist, 
as represented in card 5. This button will pre- 
vent the skirt from twisting around or sagging 
down out of place, and it will also support half 
its weight. The cloth for the semicircular 
underskirt should be at least a yard wide : if 
only one is to be cut, two yards in length will be 
required ; but, if there are to be two, three yards 



236 DRESS-REFORM. 

will be sufficient When the skirt is to be of 
flannel that is liable to shrink, the top should be 
cut larger, to admit of a plait or two behind ; 
and in that case the cloth must be wider than 
if the ordinary piece is removed from the 
centre. 

When Prince Albert admired the red flannel 
skirt of the Scotch peasant girl, as she walked 
across the fields near Balmoral Castle, and his. 
loving queen straightway ordered for herself a 
similar garment, she introduced a fashion which 
has resulted in a permanent gain to the dress of 
her sex. Colored woollen skirts became popular, 
and were soon manufactured ready for all to 
wear. In former times such skirts were of the 
quilted variety, made at home with much labor, 
gathered over the hips so as to contribute exces- 
sive heat to that region, and worn with weariness 
to the flesh. The plain tunnels of felt that have 
driven them out of existence are a great im- 
provement on the straight quilted skirt ; but 
they also are too heavy and too warm, and, 
moreover, they cannot usually be washed. It is 



APPENDIX. 237 

better to substitute a skirt made of colored 
flannel, or other washable material, with its top 
made like the under-skirt just described, and 
with a straight, scant flounce set upon its lower 
edge, at the knee. If cloth is found sufficiently 
wide to cut the entire length of the skirt of 
this semicircular shape, the flounce will not be 
needed. Besides hanging from the button be- 
hind, the balmoral should be fastened to the 
front of the under-waist by two buttons ; or it 
may be attached to suspenders. 

Suspenders.-— As to these articles, no style 
seems so good as the regular men's suspender 
of the Guyot pattern, stamped also as the 
bretelles hygieniques. They cannot fall over the 
arms ; and, however full the bust may be, they 
will, if properly adjusted, pass behind it. They 
are to be bought anywhere, as white, as delicate, 
as washable as one could wish. Ladies who have 
worn them for years pronounce them perfect. 
In the illustration, they are seen passing over 
cards 1 and 2. There are many new patterns 
of suspenders made especially for women, each 



238 DRESS-REFORM. 

claiming peculiar excellences. Dress-reformers 
have grown learned concerning them, but space 
fails us to rehearse their ins and their outs. 
We are firm in the faith that no one need be 
without a comfortable suspender of some sort, 
many women to the contrary notwithstanding. 
But it is always best to attach all the skirts to 
an under-waist, if that garment is able to carry 
them : if it is not, adopt suspenders for the 
balmoral. 

The hoop seems banished from our attire ; but 
it has survived many frowns of fashion since it 
monopolized the draw r ing-rooms of the reign of 
Queen Anne, and forced the courtly Addison 
to sneer at it in the Spectator ; and it will no 
doubt return to us after a brief exile. Many 
persons will not abandon it even now, for, worn 
of diminished size, it brings advantages which 
compensate for its weight. It keeps the folds 
of the balmoral from clogging the lower limbs 
in walking, and it allows the tops of other skirts 
to be so attached to it as to prevent undue 
heating of pelvis and spine and to render all 



APPENDIX. 239 

waist-bands unnecessary. This healthful and 
comfortable arrangement may be understood by 
a glance at card 8, and by a careful description. 
On the waist-binding of the hoop make the 
following changes : cut in it, directly behind, an 
upright button-hole, to match the button on the 
waist worn beneath it. On each side of the 
button-hole sew three buttons for holding com- 
mon suspenders, placing the front ones just over 
the firm side terminations of the upper hoops. 
This will bring the front bands of the sus- 
penders back under the arms, where they should 
be, for women. The loose end of the hoop- 
binding, which passes around the front to buckle 
on the left side, is now useless: cut it off. 
Thus your hoop will hang lightly from the 
shoulders and keep in place, with only half a 
binding. The suspenders, even, may be dis- 
pensed with, by buttoning the two ends of the 
remaining section of the binding upon the waist, 
at the sides. Now for the adjustment of under- 
skirt and balmoral. Make the plackets in both 
on the left side, near the front. The top of the 



240 DRESS-REFORM. 

semicircular under-skirt should be as large as 
the circumference of the upper hoops ; in this 
faced top set eyelet-holes, about three inches 
apart ; through these, lace the skirt upon the 
inside of one of the hoops near the top, and 
carry the lacing along on the front, to meet the 
other end of the lacing. These two ends of the 
lacing tie and untie. The balmoral is finished 
at the top with a semicircular binding or facing, 
which is to lie upon the hoops outside, quite 
near its waist-binding. It is held there in place 
by three buttons on the tapes of the hoop, one 
behind, and one on each side where the hoops 
end, with button-holes corresponding in the top 
of the skirt. The hoop is removed with the 
skirts upon it, when the balmoral is simply 
unbuttoned, and the under-skirt untied, on the 
side plackets. The lacing, when put in, is 
secured at each end by a knot tied over the last 
eyelet-hole. Thus one pair of suspenders and 
one button lift the whole skirts so lightly that 
the wearer is almost unconscious of their weight : 
they are nowhere felt at the waist, nor do they 



APPENDIX. 241 

touch the body behind, below the waist, if the 
hoop projects, as it should, in something like a 
bustle, so as to make an air-chamber beneath 
the tops of the skirts. 

This closes the catalogue of improved under- 
garments. Very many varieties might be men- 
tioned, but these are the essential forms. Let 
me recapitulate, for the benefit of those who 
desire to wear the best assortment. Your first 
suit will be a chemiloon. In winter, it will be of 
flannel ; in summer, of woollen gauze, silk, or 
cotton, but a chemiloon it will be. Above this, 
there may be another chemiloon of cotton, if the 
first suit is of a different material, and to this 
may be buttoned the under-skirt. But, if no 
under-skirt is worn, another chemiloon of colored 
flannel is added, or a pair of drawers made of 
colored woollen goods is buttoned to the chemi- 
loon beneath. Then comes the balmoral hung 
upon the waist, upon suspenders, or upon a sus- 
pended hoop. 

The Outer Dress. — The external costume 
forms the third and last division of the apparel. 
11 p 



242 DRESS-REFORM. 

For this no singular style is required, since our 
present fashions will supply a model which is 
the most healthful, convenient and artistic that 
is possible for us to-day : I mean the Gabrielle, 
or gored dress, with additions and modifications 
as represented in cards I and 2. It requires 
less cloth than any other, and is consequently 
lighter, as well as cheaper ; its weight depends 
entirely from the shoulders ; it has no band and 
no fulness at the waist ; and its lines, flowing 
from shoulder to foot, blend bodice with skirt 
by graceful curves. This alone will form the 
house-dress. For the street superadd a pol- 
onaise, or, if you prefer, an over-skirt and a short 
sack. The color and material of these last gar- 
ments may be different from the Gabrielle, 
which will appear to outward view only as the 
black under-skirt of the dress. 

Would you make this costume ? Buy a good 
paper pattern of the Gabrielle ; cut off its train, 
rendering it as short as you can wear it, and still 
retain your peace of mind ; trim some fulness 
from the gores behind and from the side-seams 



APPENDIX. 243 

of the skirt ; and fit its waist loosely to your 
form. Make it of black alpaca, cashmere, or silk, 
and it will be durable, and suited to all seasons. 
If you must yield to the tempter and trim the 
bottom, one broad flounce with a puffed heading 
should suffice ; but let the trimming upon the 
neck, coat-sleeves and side-pockets be flat, so as 
to be well hidden beneath the polonaise. White 
cuffs, collar, and bright necktie will render it 
pretty for the house. Of cambric, with no 
waist-lining, it is that cool, light, washable robe 
of which we dream when the dog-days are upon 
us and Sirius rages. Let the polonaise be com- 
fortably loose below the arms ; hem the edge of 
its skirt ; and, if the material be good, it will be 
sufficiently ornamented with handsome buttons 
upon the front, and a ruff, or what you will, about 
the neck. The over-skirt which is to be worn 
under the sack should have straps fastened to 
it and a loose binding, that it may not be felt at 
the waist. 

Ornament. — The ornament used upon the 
dress should be light, durable, and simple. The 



244 DRESS-REFORM. 

heaviest trimmings known are kilt-plaits, and 
fringes of jet beads ; and no approval of fash- 
ion should tempt one to wear them. The soft- 
ness of lace, the gloss and swing of silken 
fringes, smooth, stitched bands of cloth or of 
braid, — these offer styles of adornment that are 
always tasteful and unobjectionable. There is 
no need of profuse trimmings where the mate- 
rial of the dress is rich and handsome ; and, 
where it is cheap and simple, they are certainly- 
out of place. Thomas Fuller says of the good 
wife, " She makes plain cloth to be velvet by 
her handsome wearing of it ; " and a well-cut 
garment, of becoming shape and color, has in 
itself a beauty of contour and a play of fold 
which belong only to smooth and floating sur- 
faces and lines. All ornaments worn upon the 
person should at least pretend to serve some 
useful purpose. There is no pretence of use in 
bracelets, ear-rings, necklaces, and such mean- 
ingless appendages, which are an inheritance 
from the barbarous tribes who hang rings in 
their noses as well as in their ears, smear their 



APPENDIX. 245 

cheeks with red paint, wear strings of shells 
about their necks, and in all things mistake tog- 
gery for grace. Men have rid their dress of such 
unworthy, gewgaws ; and since we seem to fol- 
low slowly after their styles, adopting into our 
costume many minor features of their dress, we 
shall in time discard heathenish baubles for 
something less suited to childish tastes. 

Waist of the Dress. — In the waist of the 
Gabrielle dress, biases should be recognized 
only so far as they are useful in outlining the 
natural form : they must never serve as acces- 
sories to that compression of the waist which 
has become so pernicious. Elizabeth Stuart 
Phelps, in that brilliant and suggestive mono- 
graph entitled "What to Wear," which has 
done such valiant service in the cause of dress- 
reform, does well to insist that plain biased 
waists have much to answer for in the tortures 
inflicted upon women by their dress. Her 
charges are none too strong. Nature is so 
directly at variance with this feature of our 
apparel, that it seems invented only to aid and 



246 DRESS-REFORM. 

abet the corset in its deadly work. We read 
in the old fairy story that, when Cinderella's 
haughty sisters would go to the prince's ball, 
more than a dozen laces were broken in endeav- 
oring to give them a slender shape ; and we 
know full well that without the biased waist 
their endeavors to make a presentable appear- 
ance would have been in vain. I have seen the 
Digger Indian women roaming the woods of 
California in a single garment, and that a calico 
dress with a biased waist. They could be in- 
debted to civilization for but one article, and 
they chose that. But this feature of our attire 
has had its day. Before the growth of intelli- 
gence, it must inevitably disappear. The sub- 
stitutes thus far provided have been straight 
waists girded with a belt drawn tight enough to 
keep the loose gathers down in place ; so that 
one fault has been corrected by another equally 
bad. Belts for the outer dress are no more 
deserving of favor than those found in the 
under-wear. If any one cannot yet reconcile 
herself to the flowing curves of a loose Gabrielle 



APPEXDIX. 247 

waist, she may take refuge in an infinite vari- 
ety of pretty little sacques, made beautiful with 
trimming; and with their adjunct of an over- 
skirt, she can move as freely and breathe as 
deeply as she may wish. 

Length of Skirt. — The length of the skirt 
can even now be very much shortened, without 
attracting attention or bringing annoyance to 
the wearer. When the bloomer dress was de- 
vised, high boots for women were not known ; 
and for the long gap between skirt and boot a 
visible pantalette of the Turkish pattern was 
provided. This made a conspicuous feature of 
the short dress. But, if a dress-skirt reaches 
the tops of our present boots, it is a long way 
from the ground. A skirt of that length will look 
graceful and becoming to all sensible observers. 
But, were it necessary to make a choice between 
cleanliness and grace, no lady should fail to 
choose the former, especially when health and 
comfort accompany it. Many persons pause to 
look after any display of the latest styles, any 
fresh, beru filed train sweeping the sidewalk ; and 



248 DRESS-REFORM. 

the wearer appears in no wise dismayed or sad- 
dened by the attention she excites. Cannot we 
show as much heroism in the cause of good 
sense as she shows in the cause of folly, and 
endure an occasional glance at the novelty 
of a short, trim skirt and unencumbered feet ? 
Fashion finds plenty of followers to do her bid- 
ding : why cannot reformers equal them in forti- 
tude and composure ? 

Wraps. — For outer garments, the short 
sacque is the most serviceable. The shawl has 
antiquity and grace to recommend it : we re- 
member how universally its shape entered into 
the component parts of the female dress of the 
Greeks, in what rich folds of drapery it sweeps 
down from the shoulders, and how, in the hands 
of a Lady Hamilton, it may lend a charm even 
to the swaying motion of the dance that bears 
its name ; but it impedes the movement of the 
body in walking, covers the arms till they are 
nearly useless, and crowds about the neck. 
When we have a mind to be statuesque at all 
hazards, or when we can rest at ease on carriage 



APPENDIX. 249 

cushions, or take a siesta at home, it may be 
made available ; but, when we wish to walk or 
to work, it can be nothing but an encumbrance. 
Then a simple, sleeved garment is far prefer- 
able. 

Clothing of the Extremities. — The hands in 
winter should never be confined in a muff ; nor 
should furs be worn about the neck. Mittens 
are better than gloves for warmth ; and women 
should learn to move their arms freely at the 
side, instead of keeping them bent, with the 
hands pinioned at the waist. The sleeve has 
reached perfection in the close coat-sleeve, cut 
high on the shoulder, so as to give freedom of 
movement to the shoulder-joint. We are in- 
debted to the French for so many pernicious 
fashions, that we may thank them for a style as 
sensible as this. 

I need not say that a low-heeled, broad-soled 
boot or shoe, of soft, stout leather, not too loose 
or too tight, is requisite to the proper clothing 
of the foot, and to an easy and elastic gait. 
There may be a variety in the shoes to be worn on 
n* 



250 DRESS-REFORM. 

different occasions ; and they should be changed 
often, as should also the stocking, owing to the 
moisture of the foot. We may not have as 
large an array of shoes as the historian Pres- 
cott kept for his own use ; but slippers for the 
house, made of thick cloth for winter, " Newport 
ties," and boots of several varieties of make, 
seem essential to daily comfort. Calf-skin is 
the best leather for ordinary wear; but, while 
goat-skin is no protection against wet, its 
porous nature allows the exhalations from the 
foot to pass off freely. Nothing should be 
suffered to interfere with this function of the 
skin. Cork-soles covered on one surface with 
enameled cloth, and rubber shoes, are too imper- * 
vious to the air. Indeed, rubber shoes, and 
especially rubber boots, should very seldom be 
worn. The Maine lumbermen secured rubber 
boots for themselves as soon as these articles ap- 
peared in the market, thinking thus to keep their 
feet dry while rafting logs on the Penobscot ; 
but they soon found their feet more damp than 
before, and were obliged to abandon the boots. 



APPENDIX. 251 

The exhaled moisture of the foot, instead of pass- 
ing off into the air, was again absorbed, to the 
injury of the system. In a January thaw, or on 
a glare of ice, rubbers are indispensable ; but 
they should be removed as soon as possible. 

For the head, a soft, light hat seems perfec- 
tion ; and one may not deny it the ornament of 
a curling ostrich feather ; though if birds would 
only teach us the art of keeping their plumes 
in curl in damp weather, so that we could 
wear them confidently in a fog, there would 
be no drawback to their grace and beauty. 
That conglomeration of bows, muslin flowers, 
buckles, feathers, lace, and beads, usually heaped 
upon the useless articles called hats, presents a 
style of composite architecture not edifying to 
behold. It is less beautiful and becoming than 
the plain hat which men wear ; but the latter 
might borrow to advantage a few of our useless 
feathers. The width of the hat-brim should 
render parasol and veil unnecessary ; but it 
should not be wide enough to become unmanage- 
able in the wind. 



/ 



252 DRESS-REFORM. 

When women can lay aside all the braided 
tresses that belong to another, as well as part of 
their own, and can show a well-shaped head in 
short, curling locks with their graceful curves 
and rings, they will have added inexpressibly to 
their comfort, health, and good looks. 

Such is the apparel which intelligent care 
would proffer to the women of our time. Clothe 
yourselves thus, and life is no longer a burden. 
You look like other women, and no one suspects 
that you are not as miserable as they ; but you 
breathe where they gasp, the library books on 
the top shelf are within your reach, and when 
a friend asks you to walk a mile you are ready 
to go with him twain. 

Even in this day of pinching corsets and 
entangling trains, women are fast learning to 
respect the nature in themselves ; and they will, 
ere long, forswear bands and burdensome tog- 
gery, and roam the meadows and walk the 
streets, if not kirtled like Diana and her nymphs 
when equipped for the chase, yet with a dress 
too simple to absorb their minds, too easy to 






APPENDIX. 253 

cripple their movements, too healthful to rob 
their cheeks of a bloom which should be as 
fresh and rosy as that of the clover-tops they 
tread. 



INDEX OF TOPICS. 



A. 

Abdomen, contents of 102 

effect of heat on 11,13,127 

pressure on .... 16, 79, no, in 
American women, dress of .... 7, 38, 97, 124, 135 

Anatomy of body 100 

Antagonism between health and custom .... 125 

Appendix xviii 

Art education 167 

Associated effort 4, 96 

Association on dress vi, 2 

Austrian laborers, dress of . 15 

B. 

Bands at waist 13, 14, 17, 39, 61, 112, 113, 115, 127, 216 
Beauty in dress . . 37, 79, 82, 140, 141, 155, 162, 168 

nature 79, 148 

Bloomer dress viii 

Body, anatomy of no 

cavities of . 46, 61, 62, 101 

effect of cold on 10, 12, 85, 117 

flexibility of 206 

lack of respect for 130, 139 

mechanisms of 92, 99, 138 

physiology of 100 

structure of 43, 100, 101, 204 



256 INDEX OF TOPICS. 

Body, temperature of 10, 71, 83, 114, 116 

vertical bearing of 76, no 

Blood, circulation of ... 50, 52, 58, 72, 76, 104, 106 

Boots 39,63,73,75,116,249 

Busk 213 

c. 

Cavities of body 46, 61, 62, 10 1 

Chemiloon 225 

Chemise 215 

Children, dress of . 26, 83 

Circulation of blood ... 50, 52, 58, 72, 76, 104, 106 

Circulatory system 102 

Coeducation 21 

Cold on body, effect of 10, 12, 8s, 117 

Congestion of organs .... 10, 53, 59, 71, 117, 118 

Converts to truth 5, 123 

Corsets, as furnishing support 49, 200 

how improved 114, 207 

as preventing respiration 54, 56 

pressure from bands 16, 17, 109, 

202 
steel bars in front of .... 20, 23, no, 206 
as worn tight $7, 59, 77, 112, 164, 193, 203, 205, 

208 

by children 55 

Costume, external vii, 3, 44, 119, 187 

Cotton suit 225 

Custom antagonistic to health 125 

D. 

Diaphragm 51, 56, 108, 115 

Digestive system 102 



INDEX OF TOPICS. 257 

Diseases of women .... 21, 25, $8, 62, 79, 129, 130 
Dress of American women . . . • 7, 37, 97, 124, 135 

artistic element in 147, 154, 166 

of Austrian laborers 15 

beauty of 37, 82, 148 

of children 26, 83 

Christian nations 130 

conventional . ; 136 

of men and women contrasted 149, 153 

deference paid to . . 9, 6s 

dissatisfaction with I 

of earnest women 31, 33, 37, 136 

Eastern nations 131, 133 

employment furnished by 27, 92 

evils of present . . 13, 43, 68, 70, 74, 82, 95, 177 

extravagance in 8, 89, 93 

external 3,44,64,119,187 

of First Empire 143 

Greek and Roman 130, 142, 201 

should be healthful 138 

for holiday occasions ...... 30, 149, 158 

as impeding motion . . . . . . . 72, 7 5, 78 

improvements in 39, 60, 77, 114, 119, 162, 164, 168 

of infants 83 

as lacking beauty 139, 145 

material of 27, 34, 40, 71, 219 

of men 37, 64, 72, 148, 154, 162 

as affecting mind . 70, 90, 94 

morals 8, 64, 66, 92, 94 

of mothers 18,119,131 

permanent styles in 33 

physician's duty concerning 85 

picturesque element in 147, 158 

primal use of 71 

Q 



258 INDEX OF TOPICS. 

Dress of the rich 6, 8, 66, 88, 91 

reform in, need of . 6, 44, 68, 70, 82, 88, 98, 120, 

128, 135, 145 

worn in Sandwich Islands 131,143 

in sick-room 40 

simplicity in 163 

specialists in 34 

subordination of 41 

tight 49, 52, 57, 80, 126 

unequal thickness of 11,12,127 

uniformity in 44, 64 

for walking 70, 80, 164 

weight of . . 25,63,78,130 

of Western nations 133 

working women 7, 136, 157 

E. 

Earnest women, dress of 31, 33, 37 

Economy in dress 172 

Education of girls, physical 22, 120 

Employment furnished by dress 27, 92 

Evils of present dress .... 13, 43, 68, 70, 74, 82, 95 

External costume 3, 44, 64, 119, 187, 241 

Extravagance in dress 8, 89, 93 

Extremities, clothing of 249 

F. 

Fashion, fickleness of xii, 165 

foreign xii, 97 

improvements in 162, 164, 168 

tyranny of 23, 42, 78, 135 

Feet, clothing of 39, 63, 73, 75, 84, 116, 191 




INDEX OF TOPICS. 259 

Flannel underwear 114, 217 

Flexibility of ribs 48, 102 

Functions in health 100, 103, 116, 121 

G 

Garments, number of 3, 28 

ready made -. 168 

Garters 76, 113, 228 

Girls, physical education of 22,120,174,176 

H. 

Habit, effect of, on system 57, 81, 112 

Hair, dressing of 24, 40, 252 

Health of women 75,77,98,129,132 

Heels high 75, 165 

Hips, weight on 14, 17, 39, 61, 62, 197 

Holiday dress 30, 158 

Hoops 238 

Hygienic dress, need of . . 6, 45, 120 



Ill-health of women . . 43, 68, 75, 77, 98, 129, 132, 135 
Improved undergarments 39, 60, 77, 114, 119 

Infants, dress of 83 

1 

J- 

Joining of two garments . . . 222 

K. 
Kidney 12, 63 



260 INDEX OF TOPICS. 



L. 

Laborer, elevation of the 27, 91 

Lectures on dress v, xv 

Leggins 39, 116 

Limbs, proper clothing of . . 12, 116, 118, 127, 146, 191 

Liver 51, yy 

effect of pressure on 16 

Looseness at waist . 80, 83, 193 

Lungs 49, 106, 108 

effect of pressure on 57, 109 



M. 

Material of dress 14, 27, 34, 40, 71, 219 

Men, dress of, improvement in 162 

its lack of beauty ...... 148, sq. 

its material 37 

as serviceable 64, 72, 148 

unfriendly to dress-reform 9, 170 

Mental growth of women . . 1, 38, 64, 69, 87, 133, 136 

Mind, effect of dress on 70, 90, 94 

Missions of men and women 156 

Morals, effect of present dress on . . 8, 64, 66, 92, 94 
Mothers, effect of present dress on 18, 119, 128, 123, 131 
Motion impeded by dress 7 2 >75i 7% 



N. 

Nature, beauty in 79, 148 

Need of dress -reform . . 6, 45, 68, 70, 82, 88, 98, 120 

Nervous centres 19, 101, 110, 128 

Number of garments worn 28 



INDEX OF TOPICS. 26 1 



O. 

Opholzer, Professor, anecdote of ...... . 32 

Ornament 243 

Outer dress 3,44,64,119,187 

. P. 

Panier 63, 79 

Pelvic region 196 

Permanent styles of dress 33 

Physical education of girls 22, 120 

laws, unvarying 121, 128 

Physicians, duty of concerning dress .... 34, 85 

Physiology 100 

Poor helped by sewing 27, 92 

Pressure on limbs 76, 113 

liver 16 

lungs • S7, 109 

ribs 16, 47, 108 

stomach ^. . . 19, no 

womb 16 

Principles, hygienic 190 

R. 

Reform in dress, need of 6, 45, 68, 70, 82, 88, 98, 120, 125, 

128, 135, 145 
how effected 44, 86, 96, 121, 122, 166, 173 

Respiration 103, 107, 115 

effect of, on blood . . . . 52, 107, 108 
Ribs, effect of pressure on . . / . . . 16, 47, 108, 143 

flexibility of 45, 48, 54, 102 

Rich women, dress of 8, 66, 88, 91 



262 INDEX OF TOPICS. 



S. 

Sewing, effect of 27, 90, 94 

Shoes 3ft 63, 73, 75, n6 

Shoulders, support from 39, 44, 55, 61, 63, J3, 81, 114, 

115, 126, 193, 197 

Skating 22 

Skin, function of 11, 40, 119 

Skirts, for infants 84 

length of 15, 44, 63, 78, 79, 84, 115, 144, 163, 247 

long, uncleanliness of 79, 165 

of peasant costumes . » 37 

trailing . . . 35, 38, 80, 142 

weight of 11, 17, 21, 63, 78, 196, 230 

Solar plexus 19, no 

Specialists in dress 34 

Stays, old-fashioned 210 

Stockings 39, 115, 227 

Stomach, effect of pressure on 19, no 

Structure of body 43, 10 1 

Subordination of dress 32, 41, 88 

Suspenders . 14, 115, 237 

Systems, circulatory 102 

digestive 102 

excretory 103, 119 

respiratory 103, 107, 115 

T. 

Temperature of body 10, 71, 83, 114, 116, 127, 191, 195 

Tight dressing . . .< 49, 5 2, $J, 80 

Time given to dress 28, 70, 86 

Trailing skirts 10, 35, 38, 80, 160 

Tyranny of fashion 23, 42 






INDEX OF TOPICS. 263 



U. 

Undergarments, importance of ... . xiv, 119, 188 
improved 3, 38, 60, 77, 114, 119, 188, 216 

Uniform styles of dress 44? 64, 179, 189 

temperature of body 191, 194 

Uterine diseases, increase in 14, 11 1, 118 

Uterus J. 16, 18, 76 

V. 

Veils 4 

Vertical bearing of body 76, 1 10 

W. 

Walking 75, 78, 115, 146 

Walking-dresses 79, 80, 164 

Waist, bands around 17, 61, 80, 112, 115 

cotton 226 

looseness at 80, 81, 83, 193, 245 

standard size of 144 

Weight of dress 25, 63, 78, 192 

on hips 14,39,61,62 

Women, diseases of 21, 25, 58, 62, 79 

ill-health of 75, 77, 98, 129, 132 

mental growth, of . 1, 38, 64, 69, 87, 133, 136 

not naturally weak 21, 129 

Work honorable for women 30, 93 

Working women, dress of 7 

dress of Austrian 15 

Wraps 248 



NOTICE. 



THE Committee on Dress-Reform have extended 
their work by opening in Boston an accessible 
and attractive room,- which is intended to serve for a 
bureau of information on all matters connected with 
dress-reform. They have provided it with an intelli- 
gent and earnest attendant, put into it specimens of 
nearly every article of under or outer wear which 
they have examined and approved, are now ready 
to exhibit these to all who may come to see, to man- 
ufacture them for all who may wish to buy, and to 
furnish patterns, instructions, or any aid that may be 
sought. They purpose to render this room a conven- 
ient centre and exchange for all dress-reformers who 
may have ideas or inventions to contribute to the 
cause, or who may wish to take away those of others. 
This room will be found at 25 Winter Street, over 
Chandler's dry-goods store, room 15. 

It is intended that the room shall be self-support- 
ing; but, as this is a benevolent enterprise, only 
such profit will be asked on the articles sold as shall 
be necessary to ensure the payment of running ex- 
penses. The labors of the committee will of course 
be gratuitous ; and they will keep all expenses at a 
low figure, in order that the garments which they 
seek to introduce may be put within reach of all. To 
this end, also, they will be willing to provide the 
plainest and cheapest material, as well as the richest. 



The full suit of these garments will comprise the 
entire flannel under-suit of new and improved pat- 
tern, manufactured in this country, according to de- 
signs furnished by the Committee ; chemiloons of 
all varieties of make, in muslin, cambric, and flan- 
nel ; basque under-waists, with other garments prop- 
erly attached ; suspenders of all sorts ; hoops with 
other skirts affixed so as to avoid waist-bindings, 
under-skirts, balmorals, Gabrielle dresses, and what- 
ever else goes to the making up of a well-dressed 
woman, according to the light of the new dispensa- 
tion. Nothing will be furnished which the Committee 
do not consider to be constructed, in all essential 
particulars, on strict hygienic principles. They will 
never forget that they are missionaries and not mer- 
chants ; but they will spare no pains to render the 
garments they furnish acceptable, and therefore ben- 
eficial. 

Orders sent must give explicit directions as to 
style, material, size, and ornament, in order to pre- 
vent the delay resulting from explanatory corre- 
spondence. They should be addressed to Dress- 
Committee, 25 Winter Street, Boston, Room 15 ; and 
a stamp should be enclosed, if reply is called for. 
Articles ordered will be forwarded by express at the 
expense and risk of persons ordering them. 

Hitherto it has been, Dress-reform made possible ; 
hereafter it shall be, Dress-reform made easy. That, 
surely, will be a great gain. 

For the Committee. 

3^77-5 



III H H 




